How the Other Half Lives
by Knight Writer Thundercat
Summary: Mumm-Ra has finally found a way to destroy Lion-O: A curse which renders the Lord of the ThunderCats female with all the challenges to go with it. Will Lion-O find a way to undo this curse, or will he be stuck as a woman for the rest of his life? And, will he even be able to cope with his new found gender?
1. The Lady of the ThunderCats

- Text Size +

ThunderCats used withot permission

The concept of Jusenkyou is borrowed from the manga Ranma 1/2

ThunderCats: How the Other Half Lives

The vial of cursed water hovered above the bubbling cauldron, slowly revolving in place by the spell Mumm-Ra had cast to summon it from his vast stores of mystical oddities which he kept stored deep in the recesses of his vile pyramid. The Ever Living studied it with a critical eye as he pondered his latest plan to destroy his hated enemies.

May you live in interesting times. Mumm-Ra, above all others, knew how powerful a curse that ancient expression was. This water, he knew, bore that exact malignancy in its clear volume. But, how interesting?

That was the problem. Mumm-Ra was unfamiliar with far eastern magics, especially such ancient curses as what now floated before his undead gaze. The source of this water was long since dried and as such, he had nothing to use for research into what this liquid could inflict. Though he hated to think it, Mumm-Ra had no clue as to what it would do to his most hated enemy.

"Even so..." he muttered into the eternal gloom of the Black Pyramid. "At this point, any option is viable." The ThunderCats had not only increased their number by three, they had constructed a new stronghold to provide early warning against the Lunataks whom he'd had the Mutants revive.

Those freaks were to be his ace-in-the-hole against the Thunderians and that damned Eye of Thundera. Even so, they proved no more effective than Slythe and his band of useless assbags in bringing the ThunderCats low.

It's a desperate gamble, Mumm-Ra thought as he beheld the ThunderTank rolling toward the Berbil Village in the depths of his cauldron. His gaze locked on the noble form of Lion-O, his intended target of this mysterious curse. Nailing him with it would be simple enough, but what would it do?

There was only one way to find out.

"Ancient Spirits of Evil. Transform this ancient form... to Mumm-Ra, the Ever Living!" The malevolent magic which animated his rotted frame swelled with evil power, swelling dessicated tissues and shredding bandages as he assumed his energized form. Time to see what ancient evil he had pulled from the depths...

Lion-O relaxed in the forward passenger seat of the ThunderTank as it rumbled past the lush foliage of Third Earth, feeling for once pleased with himself as Lord of the ThunderCats. Three of their countrymen had been rescued just six months ago, the early-warning post - dubbed the Tower of Omens - had recently been finished, and the ThunderCats were better prepared than ever to deal with their enemies.

A certified healer among our ranks, he thought. Pumyra will make life for Tygra a lot easier. Bengali's skills as a blacksmith had already come in handy. After the Lunatak TugMug had broken the blade of the Sword of Omens, it had been the white Tyger who had so easily repaired it. And Lynx-O! His braille board propelled his remaining senses to levels Lion-O could scarcely comprehend.

Satsified with himself, Lion-O breathed in the fresh scent of the forest. The ThunderCats were by no means safe and secure, he wasn't so foolish as to think, but they were at least prepared to deal with their enemies.

"LION-O!"

Panthro brought the ThunderTank to a sudden halt as Mumm-Ra appeared in a flash of ruby energy directly in their path. Irked, Lion-O leapt out of the ThunderTank and drew the Sword of Omens in a brilliant flash.

"I'd ask what you want, Mumm-Ra," he said as the Sword grew to its battle length, "but I'm sure you're not here to discuss the weather."

"No, Lion-O," Mumm-Ra bellowed. "Today is the day I end your reign as Lord of the ThunderCats!"

"We've heard that before," Panthro snarled as he took up a position beside Lion-O. His nunchaku whirled in a lethal pattern as he prepared them for battle.

"Why don't you give up, Mumm-Ra?" Lion-O asked, tense and ready for the ancient demon's first attack. "You know you can't win!"

"Oh, but I can! And it's as easy as drowning a cat!"

At first, Lion-O only noticed that his hair had suddenly become wet. An odd tingling raced across his body, gone as quickly as it had come. He shook his head slightly, confused at Mumm-Ra's gaping stare. Whatever he'd planned, it obviously hadn't come off. Lion-O glanced upward at the overturned vial which hovered just above.

"Is that it?" he asked, at first not noticing the falsetto tone of his voice. "You called me out just to drench me?"

"Lion-O..." The horrified note in Panthro's voice caused him to turn to the now ghostly-white Panther.

"What?! Hey, what's wrong with my voice?" And why do my clothes feel so loose? he asked himself as entirely new sensations began to make themselves known.

"Oh... BWAHAHAHAHA!" Lion-O spun about to see Mumm-Ra doubled over in hysterics. "I... I never *dreamed*...! This is just *too* good!"

"What?! What have you done to me, Mumm-Ra?!"

"Why... HAHAHAHA!... Why don't you look down?!" With that, Mumm-Ra faded from view, his baleful laughter echoing on the breeze.

"What has he done to you...?" Panthro's mortified voice served to ratchet his dread even higher. He noticed how Panthro had grown... taller? No, Lion-O thought, I've shrunk! As such, Lion-O looked down at...

"Huh?!" Where there was once a heavily muscled torso, Lion-O saw beneath his incredibly loose tunic a pair of full, firm... "BREASTS?!"

Panthro couldn't tear his gaze away from Lion-O's new svelte - and definitely female - body. His face had narrowed and softened, wide golden eyes now resting over a pert nose and full lips all of which was framed by his now flowing mane. Hard, bulging muscle had melted into a trim and toned physique on par with Cheetara's. The overall effect was attractive, in a disturbing sort of way.

"Oh, hell," he muttered as Lion-O studied his... her?... new body.

"This... this has gotta be some kind of trick," Lion-O said, her voice wavering. "I just need to check on something."

"Sure," Panhro replied as Lion-O stepped behind a handy tree. What the hell was...

"GREAT JAGA'S BEARD!" Panthro heard Lion-O scream from the cover of a copse of elm. The now-female Lion staggered into view, her face a mask of abject horror. "I don't *believe* this!"

"You okay, Lion-O?" Panthro asked lamely, still numb with shock.

"Do I *look* like I'm okay?!" she shouted back. "What the hell is going on, here?!"

"Calm down," Panthro admonished, hiding the rising tide of horrified fascination at the strange sight of the now-female Lord of the ThunderCats. Water that could change one's *gender*?! What the hell else could Mumm-Ra throw at them? "Let's get back to Cat's Lair and have Pumyra take a look at you."

"Yeah... sure..." Lion-O's voice was small and flat as she spoke. Her now-overlarge boots flopped comically with each flapping step as she strode back to the ThunderTank, and remained on the ground when she leapt in. With a strangled curse, she leaned over the side and retrieved her errant footwear.

This'll knock Pumyra's socks right off, Panthro thought as he engaged the mighty engine and plotted a course back to Cat's Lair.

Mumm-Ra's roaring laughter faded into echoes as he beheld the effects of the strange curse on Lion-O within his cauldron. To *think* that such magics existed! It was enough to make the undead mage believe that the laws of the mystic were truly mad.

"Oh, how he will suffer!" he chortled as Ma-Mutt cocked his head to the side in confusion. "His insufferable male pride just went out the window, my hellish hound! How shall he adjust to his new body?" Mumm-Ra gazed closer at the pretty new Lion-O. "Not very well, I'd think. No, not very well at all. Geh...HEHAHAHAH! Unbelievable!"

It had been a desperate gamble, using that strange water. He had not been certain that its weakened magic would even affect Lion-O, much less that it would be so drastic! A realization came to him, then, which merely raised his hateful elation to new heights. The true magic of that liquid had been to effect a change between one's natural form and an alternate form. Weak as its magic had been, it was possible that Lion-O would not be able to revert to his true body.

"As such, that shapely form *is* his true body now," he muttered as the banages returned to his shrinking frame. Dozens of ways to torment his feminine foe came to his mind, each more fiendish and twisted than the last.

"May you live in interesting times, Lion-O," Mumm-Ra said as he shuffled to his sarcophagus. It's a damn shame I don't have any more of that water, he thought as his back settled against the cold stone and the lid slid over him.

Lion-O stared directly ahead at the rapidly-approaching arcology of Cat's Lair as the ThunderTank streaked across the flat grasslands which stretched before it, refusing to look down at the breasts which were the most telling evidence of her new gender.

It's impossible, she thought. The memory of finding the organ she'd been rather proud of missing stubbornly replayed itself as though to confirm her new womanhood.

I'm a man! she silently screamed when a draft about the legs drew her attention to her bare feet. The boots were far too large, now, and Lion-O hadn't bothered to put them back on after leaping out of them. Her tunic - once snug and tight over rock hard muscle - was now baggy and hanging down in folds of blue fabric, and she did her best to ignore the way the crotch pressed against...

"Damnit..."

"Say something, Lion-O?"

"Nothing," she replied tersely as the ThunderTank crossed the bridge over the chasm to come to a halt in the courtyard. Careful not to expose herself, Lion-O gingerly exited the ThunderTank just as Cheetara exited the Lair and bounded down the steps.

Here we go, Lion-O thought with sudden dread. Having to face the other ThunderCats in her condition was something she somehow hadn't considered, and the prospect was less than thrilling.

"Is something wrong?" Cheetara asked, staring at Lion-O with an eyebrow raised. "Another survivor?" The joy in her voice only made Lion-O wince. "Why is she wearing Lion-O's clothes? And where is he, anyway?"

"You're looking at him," she replied. Cheetara's gaze turned sharp. "Hey, you're not the only one who isn't amused."

"It's true," Panthro said as he joined the pair. "I saw it myself. Mumm-Ra used some weird magic water and you can see the result."

"I don't believe it!" Cheetara exclaimed, wide eyes glued to Lion-O's curvaceous form.

"It's my body, and *I* don't believe it!" she snapped. "Cheetara, call Pumyra. I need to see if this can be reversed."

"In the meantime," Panthro said as they walked toward the main entrance to the Lair, "You should really get some better clothes on."

"That can wait..."

"Lion-O," Cheetara began, much to her annoyance. "That tunic's much too large for you, now. Unless you want to show off what you've got, you really should change."

"Change?!" she barked. "Oh, I think I've had enough change for one day! I'll be in the infirmary."

Cheetara exchanged a worried look with Panthro as Lion-O stomped into the Lair, his tunic flopping as though it were a limp sail.

"He's not taking this well," Panthro said, unknowing that he was in complete agreement with Mumm-Ra's assessment.

"It's not easy being a woman," Cheetara replied. "Is the change only physical?"

"I don't know. I'm an engineer, not a sorcerer. Or a healer." The cool air inside the Lair met their skin as they entered the fortress. "I don't know if it can even be reversed. Mumm-Ra seemed really surprised at what that water did."

"He didn't know what it would do, then? That *is* disturbing."

"Who is that woman wearing..."

"It's Lion-O," Cheetara said, cutting off a bewildered Tygra as he entered the main foyer.

"Call Pumyra," Panthro said. "This is gonna take some explaining."

"I never would have believed it possible," Pumyra said as she studied the bloodwork results. She glanced up from the small data pad at Lion-O and shook her head in disbelief. The Lord of the ThunderCats had replaced his usual tunic with a short violet halter and a pair of brief shorts which Cheetara had loaned him... her... Whatever, she thought. "You could at least cross your legs, Lion-O."

"All right, all right," she groused, grudgingly crossing one shapely leg over the other and clearly uncomfortable about it. "Why do you do that, anyway?"

"You can't be that naieve," Cheetara said, two fingers pinching the bridge of her nose.

"It's to prevent... exposing yourself," Tygra explained, glad to have found a euphemism better than showing the goods.

"I'm wearing something! I..."

"If anyone cares to hear the results," Pumyra began, "I'd be glad to tell you."

"Please," Tygra replied.

"Lion-O's hormone levels - particularly estrogen - pheremones, even skeletal structure is all female. Medically speaking, Lion-O is a healthy young Lioness." Lion-O blew a frustrated breath between her teeth. "From the scans I took, he also possesses a woman's reproductive system as well."

"You mean Lion-O could get *pregnant*?!" Panthro sputtered.

"NO WAY!" the new Lioness shrieked.

"Well, that I won't know until I perform a gyno exam."

"A what exam?!" she asked, eyes wide and nervous.

"Gynecological examination," Pumyra explained. "To check on the health and functionality of your..." No way to sugar-coat it, she thought. "... reproductive organs."

"You mean... uh..." Lion-O gesticualted about her exposed midsection.

"Exactly."

"That doesn't sound too bad," she said, clearly relieved. Pumyra kept her face neutral, and was glad Lion-O didn't see Cheetara roll her eyes.

"We'll leave you to it, then," Tygra said as the other three ThunderCats turned to leave.

"We're... doing this now?" Lion-O asked. The door to the infirmary slid closed, leaving them alone amid the beds and racks of medical scanners.

"Better to do this now. If you please, Lion-O, I need you to remove your shorts."

"I don't think I heard you right," she replied, shaking her head.

"You did." Pumyra kept her voice brisk and business-like. This would be awkward enough without both of them letting their emotions interfere. "Please remove your shorts and lie back on the table by the east wall. Ankles in the stirrups." Lion-O, for her part, eyed the reclined bed with the upraised stirrups with trepidation bordering on real fear. Pumyra could almost hear the click in her brain as things came together for the other woman.

"You," she squeaked, "can *not* expect me to..."

"How else am I going to check up on your new internal organs? I can't see through solid objects, you know."

"Can't you do it with a medical scanner?!"

"The scanner needs to be inserted for an accurate reading."

"Inserted," Lion-O repeated, saying the word as though she had never heard it before.

"I didn't stutter."

"No. I won't do it."

"If I have to, I'll pull rank as Court Physician," Pumyra said. She'd encountered recalcitrant patients before, yet not under such strange circumstances. "If there are problems with your ovaries, your fallopian tubes, uterus, or any other of your new bodily systems, we need to find and treat them now."

"I feel fine," Lion-O said simply. "So to speak, anyway."

"By the time symptoms set in, if there is anything wrong, then treating you will become radically more difficult." Pumyra stepped to the row of drawers beneath a smooth green countertop and selected the one she needed. The medical scanner was merely four inches in length and one in circumference, rounded at the tip and connected to a complex digital readout at its base. "I'd done a few gyno exams on Thundera after I completed my training, and the equipment Tygra designed is actually better than what healers had back then. The procedure's entirely painless, I promise."

"I can handle pain, but there's no *way* you're sticking that... you know... up there!"

"Look," Pumyra said, whirling on her king - or queen as the case may be - and locking eyes with her. "This'll go one of two ways. Either you cooperate, or I have Panthro hold you so I can administer a sedative. This has to be done, whether you like it or not. The health of the Lord of the ThunderCats is my responsibility, you know."

"I know," Lion-O said, clearly not relishing what was to come.

"You needn't worry," Pumyra said gently, "it won't hurt, and it'll only take a few minutes." Lion-O's gaze shifted between her and the table for several moments before a resigned sigh escaped her full lips.

"All right," she said in defeat. "Let's get this over with."

"Uhhhh... aaaAAAHH!"

"I really wish Tygra would soundproof that door," Cheetara said from her position to its left in wait for Lion-O and Pumyra to emerge as Lion-O's surprised cry sounded from behind. Cheetara recalled her first such examination when she had come of age on Thundera. The experience took a lot of getting used to.

Or not, she thought a few moments later as no other sounds came from the other side of the door. Probably showing his manliness in not crying out, Cheetara thought. Jaga's beard, how were they going to deal with *this*!

"All done," Pumyra's muted voice said.

"Moons of Thundera, was that an exam or a heavy date?!" Lion-O's louder dulcet tones cried out. Pumyra's reply went unheard as Cheetara doubled over in hysterics. Despite the gravity of the situation, she had to admit Lion-O's reaction to his first gynecological examination was priceless.


	2. Small Adjustments

How the Other Half Lives

Part Two

Wall-eyed and still reeling from her first gynecological examination, Lion-O sat staring into space as Tygra called the hastily-called council meeting to order. The sun had nearly set, casting reddish-gold light into the spacious chamber in which the ThunderCats sat. The experience had been... interesting, she determined and decided to leave it at that.

"Pumyra," Tygra said, waving a hand in the healer's direction.

"Of course. From all the data I have gathered on Lion-O's condition..."

Condition, she thought sourly. *There's* a freaking euphemism!

"...I came to the conclusion that, somehow, Mumm-Ra has turned the Lord of the ThunderCats into a healthy and fully functional female."

"I came to that conclusion a few hours ago," Lion-O retorted. "Is there a way to reverse this?"

"This is the first case of spontaneous gender switching I've ever seen," Pumyra replied. "I have no idea how that water could do something like this. If I hadn't seen it myself, I'd have never thought it possible!"

"Mumm-Ra must have a cure," Panthro snarled. "I say we pay a visit to his pyramid."

"He might also have more of that water," Lion-O said. "He obviously didn't know what it would do to me, and I don't want to think of what it could do to any of you." Much as she hated inaction, she knew that to confront Mumm-Ra without a plan would put all the ThunderCats in danger. "There's a chance that the people of Third Earth may know something about that water."

"That may be so," Cheetara added. "After all, Willa led us to the Geyser of Life."

"Then tomorrow morning, I'll make for the Treetop Kingdom. Lion-O, will you accompany me?"

"I don't much like being seen like this..."

"Like this?" Pumyra asked with a raised eyebrow. "What's wrong with being seen as a woman?"

"The fact that I'm a man, maybe?"

"Not at the moment."

"And you'd know that rather well."

"Enough!" Cheetara exclaimed. "For the moment, Lion-O, you *are* female in body despite how you may feel in mind."

"I know, I know," she said in a tight voice. "It's just so... different!"

"It must be a huge adjustment, Lion-O," Tygra said. "We will do all in our power to find a way to reverse this. In the meantime, we will also help in any way we can to acclimate you to your current form."

"Two of us are experts at being women," Cheetara added with a wink, her voice gentle.

"Sure," Lion-O said flatly. "I need a shower. I call that the meeting be adjourned."

"Seconded," Panthro said.

"Very well. Council adjourned." Lion-O was the first to leave, hips swaying fetchingly beneath the undergarments Cheetara had provided.

"Now that Lion-O's no longer present," Pumyra said, "there are other matters which need to be addressed."

"Such as?" Cheetara said without feeling. She knew.

"Lion-O's reproductive cycle."

"What about it?" Panthro asked.

"Lion-O's new body is at the latter part of the female reproductive cycle," Pumyra said. "He... She... oh, Lion-O could experience severe desires to copulate."

"So?" Panthro said. "It's not like any of us will take adavantage."

"Of course not," Pumyra came back. "But the female sex drive, particularly at this stage of the cycle, can be rather intense."

"You don't mean Lion-O's gonna start hitting on us?!" Panthro asked, wide-eyed and incredulous.

"I don't know. His mind is still male. I have no idea how he'll handle female drives. Also, I don't have a clue how he'll tolerate menstruation."

"Looks like we're in for a rough period," Tygra said, his voice low. The collective groans and gaping stares of the ThunderCats hit him like a slap in the face. "The sooner we find a way to change Lion-O back, the better," he continued quickly, embarrassed.

"And if we can't?"

"Then, Cheetara, we do what we can and hope for the best."

Horror beat at her mind in ever-rising tides of madness as Lion-O leaned forward, one trim arm braced against the wall of the shower as hot water rained down on her new form. She found herself wishing that the steaming jets would wash away her female form and leave her in her true body. Soapy suds ran down her firm breasts and trim stomach with the spray of the shower, revealing what was now her body.

This *isn't* my body! she thought in outrage.

The constant restless gaze she could barely repress at council, and the strange desires that were making themselves known gave lie to that thought. The needs of the flesh were all too familiar to Lion-O as a man. As a woman, however, she was finding those drives to be far more intense, even demanding, than she had thought possible. The fact that she was now alone had dulled the feelings somewhat brought little comfort.

"It's just this stupid body," she muttered as the soap washed away and the shower ended. "That's all it is." On stepping out of the shower, she refused to look down at herself as she trod to the mirror and wiped clear the condensation on its surface. Her gaze locked on her reflected face as she grabbed a handy towel and rubbed herself dry.

Different face, she thought as the soft cloth soaked up excess water. Okay. I can handle the face. Its job finished, the towel was sailed toward the nearby hamper and she laid hands on a drier one. She focused on the strange face which stared at her from the glass. Crimson hair which hung down to her shoulders rather than nearly horizontal as her mane once stood. Eyes, those were mostly the same. Aquiline nose. That's new. Full lips, softer jawline and cheeks. Lion-O took a deep breath as she stepped back from the mirror before looking down at what she had gained from that water.

"This isn't my body," she growled as she wrapped the towel about her waist. A frustrated groan escaped her throat as she undid the towel.

Okay, I can do this, she thought as the towel pressed in on her breasts when she tied the knot. Two steps later, her efforts were defeated and the towel bunched at her feet. Lion-O looked down - deliberately avoiding the apex of her legs - at the circular bundle of cloth which refused to cover her.

"Oh, forget it," she growled as she stomped out of the bathroom. "It's not like anyone's gonna... ooOOHH! COLD!" Lion-O shivered, covering herself as the much cooler air of the bedchamber raised goosebumps on her flesh. She hadn't bothered with the temperature of the water - the hotter the better to undo the tension in her muscles - and likewise hadn't considered what walking about unclothed would result in. Once again thinking that being female was for the birds, she padded across the spacious sleeping area to her closet.

"Grrrr..." Tunic after tunic hung suspended from the rack, each one far too voluminous for her slighter frame. Lion-O's eyes tracked down to the row of boots which stood in line on the floor and recalled how she had leapt clear of the pair she'd worn earlier. From the footwear, she gazed at the row of soft white bathrobes which would undouobtedly fit her like tents.

The door to the closet slid shut at the press of a button, Lion-O turning about and leaning back against the cool metal and her stare finding the halter and shorts Cheetara had loaned her. The fit about her waist and hips had been a tad loose, yet around the chest had been slightly snug. It hit her, then, that she was used to looking down to see into Cheetara's lovely eyes. Now, she had to gaze upward. Lion-O glared at the silky undergarments. They sat on the floor at the foot of her bed, the memory of them on her most intimate parts and the look... the color!... of them seeming to both confirm her current gender and taunt her all at once.

"I'm a man," she whispered, sliding down to the unyeilding floor. She sat there, lost in a malestrom of confusion and self-doubt. The thoughts that had whirled just beneath the surface at the council meeting returned, and Lion-O swatted them away as the addictive heat began to build in her core. "I'm a man," she said again, leaning her head back against the door to the closet to avoid looking down at herself. Thunderian attitudes toward nudity notwithstanding, she simply couldn't accept the sight of her breasts and her... Lion-O couldn't even give thought to what rested at the apex of her legs despite the heat that built there as well at the thought of... of...

She pushed thoughts of Cheetara and what she felt for her out of her mind as well as the other strange desires that kept nagging at her. Lion-O had been building up courage to try and establish a relationship with the beautiful Cheetah.

Fat chance of that now, she thought in anger. The door chime sounded, startling her out of her train of misery.

"Just a second!" she called, leaping to her feet and eyeing the underwear on the floor with disdain before re-opening the closet and snatching a handy robe.

Cheetara looked down into Lion-O's rather attractive new face which seemed to be breaking the surface of a river of white cloth. The robe pooled on the floor, showing nothing of form or shape.

"Hi," Lion-O said, a trace of sadness in her eyes.

"Good evening. Mind if I come in?"

"Sure." Cheetara enetered as the smaller woman stepped aside and immediately noted that the shorts and halter she'd been loaned were discarded on the floor. "If there's any doubt of your masculinity, Lion-O, that puts paid to them," she said, pointing.

"Uh-huh." Cheetara winced, seeing that her attempt at levity had failed miserably. "I brought some clothing for you."

"Great. Thanks," Lion-O said, falling into a sitting position on the bed. The right side of the enormous robe fell down to expose a fetching expanse of shoulder and arm before Lion-O pulled the errant fabric back into place. Cheetara handed the bundle of tan fabric over as she dragged the nearest chair to the side of Lion-O's bed. The new woman unfurled the bundle to reveal one of Cheetara's leotards whose size Snarf had gotten wrong as well as...

"Uh... what on Third Earth are *these*" Lion-O asked as he inspected the gossamer panties Cheetara had provided.

"Underwear," Cheetara answered, "Which will suit that leotard better than the shorts I loaned you."

"Underwear," Lion-O said slowly as she eyed the tiny garment, "or what there is of it. I guess I should thank you. I don't have a *thing* to wear." Lion-O began to laugh at that, hysterics grasping her as she carelessly tossed the panties on the pillows. "I never thought those words would come from my mouth!" She roared in mad laughter, the bathrobe pooling about her as the hilarity overcame her.

"Seriously," Cheetara began, "You can't walk about in my underwear all day..." The madness of her statement hit her all at once, and she couldn't help a brief laugh. "I never thought *those* words would pass *my* lips!" They both laughed hysterically, both from humor and horror, and none could tell which was in dominance.

"How am I going to deal with this?"

"Oh, come off it," Cheetara said in reply. "You act as though being female for a while is a death sentance."

"It's not that," Lion-O said. "I just want to be myself again." Lion-O picked up the panties that Cheetara had brought and studied them with reluctant interest. "Don't tell me you acutally *wear* this?!

"Women do," Cheetara said in reply. "Trust me, it is a necessity. As for the torso, my leotards have breast supports built in. They may be a tad small, but they'll do."

"To think I have to... DAMNIT!" Lion-O shrieked as the shoulders of her robe fell off her shoulders on standing. Lion-O barely managed to cross her arms to prevent the cascading cotton from exposing her breasts. "Having breasts... is covering them always this hard?!"

"It takes some getting used to," Cheetara said as Lion-O brought the folds of her robe back to her shoulders. "Maybe Snarf should make a smaller robe for you..."

"No, this is fine," Lion-O snapped, then winced at the harsh tone of her voice. "It's not like this is permanent."

"Even so," Cheetara said as she rose, looking down into eyes she had come to love. She had not admitted her feelings toward him - her? - yet that warm feeling still persisted. "There's more to being a woman than having the... er..." She gesticulated futilely for a moment while wracking her brain for the best way to finish her statement.

"Equipment?" Lion-O offered warily.

"That's as good a euphemism as any, I guess," Cheetara said with a chuckle. "Right now, you're probably feeling some rather intense urges."

"No, I'm fine." Cheetara eyed the shorter Lioness critically, hearing the lie in her voice like a misplayed note in a symphony.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then, good night."

"Good night."

"I haven't had this much fun in centuries!" Mumm-Ra cried in glee as he watched Lion-O disappear beneath the thick blankets of her bed. Within the waters of the scrying pool, the Lioness settled amidst the sea of fabrics as she sought a restful slumber that Mumm-Ra was determined not to allow. "Sleep, Lion-O," he muttered as he weaved an ancient dreaming spell above the liquid. "Sleep, and let us see what dreams may come."

Mumm-Ra searched the realm of Lion-O's dreams, anticipation tingling in his dessicated fingers. One only had so much influence on the world of dreams from the standpoint of the waking realm, and whatever nightmares he could conjure would have to be found in Lion-O's...

"How interesting!" Mumm-Ra roared, leaning down to pat Ma-Mutt atop his hideous head. "I never would have imagined this!" The dream images shifted and flowed in the pool as the undead mage howled in demonic glee. The best nightmares could sometimes be the most secret desires. "I never would have thought it of you, Lion-O."

The dream fully summoned from her mind, Mumm-Ra pulled his cloak tight about his body and waited for the show to begin.


	3. Only a Dream

He felt Cheetara pressed against him, her hands caressing his broad back and her breasts a soft presence on his chest. Lion-O wished he could stay there forever, inhaling the clean scent of her black-spotted blonde hair and revelling in the feel of her taut back against his hands. He knew, though, that the embrace would not last yet was filled with tingling anticipation of what would soon follow it. They parted...

Wait, he thought, what the hell?

Cheetara was looking down at him (down?) with despair in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Not like this." The Cheetah's breasts were now at eye-level, hitching as she took a sobbing breath. "I can't with you this way."

"What?"

"Don't you see yourself?" Lion-O looked down at his own pair of breasts (why are mine bigger than hers?) and his... her... her...

Lion-O looked up in time to see Cheetara turn and dash away at a speed the Lioness could never hope to match. She took a running step forward, desperate to reach the taller woman.

Feels like I'm running through water, she thought just before an impact on her rear leg tangled it with her other leg and sent her sprawling. Unyeilding cold slammed into her from the impact as a menacing chuckle sounded from the darkness.

"Look at you," the distorted voice said. "Not a woman for a full day and running around naked as the day is long."

"SHOW YOURSELF!" she roared, flipping upright and reaching for the Sword of Omens out of reflex before realizing that she was, indeed, still naked.

"You're doing a rather admirable job of that right now," the voice replied as a form began to take shape from the dark. "Are you THAT proud of having a..."

"SH-SHUT UP!"

"A weak, helpless woman," the voice continued as the shape stepped nearer. "All you can think about is the heat in your loins." Fear ran icy fingers down her spine, the voice's owner becoming clear a mere second before his features did.

"Get away from me." She tried for a defiant roar, yet all that emerged from her throat was a quivering squeak. Tygra was naked and... and... hard. Lion-O felt her eyes dragging down to that part of Tygra's anatomy as though a pair of hands had gripped her head and forced it down. She fought the strange force grasping her head, locking her gaze on his chest instead just in time. Or, so she thought.

"You so looked." Tygra's voice, full of something she didn't want to consider, tried to work its way into the strange feelings that roared through her. "You liked it."

"I COMMAND you to BACK THE FUCK OFF!" She screamed, yet the words lacked conviction. Her eyes felt drawn to Tygra's crotch and the heat in her stomach spiked despite herself.

"Look at yourself," Tygra said with commanding voice and gaze. "From here, being a woman agrees with you."

"Go away," she said, weakly, her knees trembling. The desires mounting inside her felt... wrong, even alien... yet seemed... right?

"That's not what you want." Tygra was within arm's reach of her, and she found herself noticing the lines of his muscles. "I know what you want."

"I'm a man..."

"With that rack?" At that, her breasts began to tingle, especially at their tips.

This is... this is WRONG! she shrieked inwardly as her body yeilded against her will and the cold floor greeted first her knees, then her back. For a horrible instant, her eyes locked onto his manhood and revulsion warred with a desire that could not have been her own...

Lion-O jerked awake with a scream fighting to escape her lips in the pre-dawn gloom of her chambers. The blankets were damp with sweat (and nothing else, she tried to tell herself) and the robe she had fallen into slumber wearing was loose and tangled about her. She sat upright, gasping from feelings and thoughts utterly foreign to her. Her heart pounded with enough force to throb at her temples and heat both repulsive and inviting churned away within her core and her... her...

"Damnit!" she shouted, still unwilling to call that part of her new anatomy by name as though it would somehow make her new form permanent. From the corner of her brain where logic had retreated to its vacation home since the change, a message was sent to whatever had been left in charge that gave assurances that such a thing was utterly absurd. Her body read the message and sent a reply that asked about the moistness between its legs.

She lay there, torn between shame, fear, revulsion and... an emotion she refused to call desire. No. Fucking. Way. Her thoughts were a confused jumble of images and emotions that leaned one way or the other toward the intensely erotic, her nipples hard nubs against what parts of the robe covered them when another message from logic's hidey-hole reminded her of a way to overcome it all. Lion-O swept the covers clear and doffed the robe on her way to the shower where she set the water to something barely above freezing and plunged in.

What felt like barely frozen ice rained down on her back and readily doused the erotic fires that dream (nightmare) had evoked. Calm stormed Mission Control, surprised whatever had been at the helm, and booted it out before assuming control and steering her back to rationality.

The dream had been different, had felt influenced. From her new body's composition? It had always ended with her (as a him) taking Cheetara and...

The feelings began to creep back in and she turned her face up into the icy jets of water.

Tygra had never been a part of those. Was it this body, or was Mumm-Ra having more of his fucked-up idea of fun? Lion-O turned her face from the spray, wondering if there was any real difference. She snapped her legs closed when the cold water ran down a rather intimate part of her rear to freeze a sensitive part of her front yet she stayed in to methodically soap and wash herself. There was no way she'd let any evidence of that dream, wherever it had come from, remain on her.

She emerged from the shower an indeterminable time later and nearly wiped steam away from the mirror before realizing she had kept it almost as cold as the peak of Hook Mountain. The same strange face greeted her, a mask of calm over suppressed emotions. This attack was personal in a way that she had never considered possible, yet she still kept a calm frame of mind while ignoring that her lips were a shade blue. She brushed out her hair, studiously ignoring those thoughts, until another and much less avoidable biological imperative made itself known. Lion-O looked at the toilet, then herself, and groaned.

Cheetara walked towards Lion-O's quarters, groggy from broken sleep and lack of coffee. She drew up short when the now-female Lion-O stormed from her quarters and nearly bumped into her.

"You seem... What happened?"

"Seat. Down," she said, biting off each word. "NOW I get it." Cheetara stared in confusion for half a second before suppressing a laugh.

Lion-O, clad in a different robe, sat at the breakfast table. She fought the multi-faceted battle of keeping her sleeves out of her food and ignoring the open stares from WilyKit, Snarf, and WilyKat while eating. Pumyra, staying in the Lair until further notice, dug into her cantaloupe half with a spoon while shooting only darting glances.

"More bacon?" Snarf asked meekly, walking up with a tray.

"I'm full," she said, meaning it. She had eaten as much as her now-smaller stomach would allow. "Thanks, Snarf." Her former nursemaid trotted away without a glance. Lion-O picked at the remains of her breakfast, her hunger suddenly gone with the last concrete traces of her dream.

"So, Lion-O," Tygra said. "I think we should head to the Treetop Kingdom as soon as possible."

Her spine gave an involuntary jolt. "Um... Don't you have other things to do?"

"I beg your pardon," Tygra said before finishing his eggs, "but your..."

"Maybe Cheetara could drive instead?"

"I'd be happy to," she replied.

"Well, if you're sure," Tygra replied.

"Thank you." Lion-O went back to her breakfast, refusing to think about the fading details of her dream yet was unable to eat another bite. "I'm gonna get dressed now." Without further preamble, she rose and made her way to the corridor which led to her chambers.

In the shadows of Mumm-Ra's tomb was a sight none had ever beheld before.

Mumm-Ra was face-down on the floor before the cauldron, laughing hysterically and pounding the stones with his gnarled fist and been at it for the better part of an hour.

"By... By the PIT!" he crowed as the gales slowed gradually to mere breezes of laughter. "To think such a thing would shake him that badly!" The magics which affected dreams were limited, especially so when the recipient possessed no psionic abilities and the spell was used on the Mortal Plane rather than in the realm of dreams. He had been limited to just the images and emotions in Lion-O's psyche and the responses of his new - and rather shapely - female form.

But, Mumm-Ra had been clever.

It had been a recent dream, of him taking Cheetara to his bed and letting nature take its course. A simple reminder of his new body had made his dream self acutely aware of it and of a budding fear that the woman he loved could not return it due to said body.

And then, things had gotten... interesting.

It had been meant to be a dream of being violated by not just a man, but the man who was his second in command. The strong positive emotions associated with Tygra would have made it most horrible, or so Mumm-Ra had thought. He hadn't even considered that the change had put his foe smack into the middle of her newly-reconfigured mating cycle and, unfamiliar with the drives of her new body, those urges had taken command and his own mindset had been nearly drowned out. To have been taken by Tygra would have been bad enough. To have enjoyed it against her will would have been, perhaps, the ultimate degradation.

And it opened up realms of new possibilities.

"Mumm-Ra," the Ancient Spirits of Evil called out, their mingled voices filled with the concern one expresses when addressing the wildly insane.

"Just... Just a moment, my masters." Mumm-Ra got his hands and knees beneath him and, certain the hilarity was done for the moment, pushed up to his feet. "I haven't been this entertained since... ever!"

"We are pleased that you have been sufficiently amused. Now, how does further our own goals?" While he had been watching and re-watching the dream he had twisted in Lion-O's mind a plan had formed which he presently told his masters about. "EXCELLENT!" they roared. Dust rained from the ceiling at their triumphant cry. "We are MOST pleased with you, good servant!"

"Your praise delights me," Mumm-Ra replied with a sincerity that reflected his nature; false and empty.

"What aid will you require of us?"

"There is no need for you to exert your mighty wills, my masters," he said. "I thank you for your generous offer, and I shall keep it well in mind. For now, I have need of a more... mortal ally."

"As you wish, Mumm-Ra," they rumbled, the eyes in the statues fading from crimson to obsidian. They knew he had meant one he could kill once the inevitable double-cross came into play. Unfortunately, his bondage to them had no escape and his servitude was eternal. It rankled him to no end that he had found nothing to indicate he could turn the tables. Yet.

"Alluro," he called as he trod to the edge of the cauldron. The image of the Lunattak appeared at once, shirtless and seemingly asleep amid the toussled bedsheets. "I did not need to see that," he muttered before calling Alluro's name again.

"What do you want?" he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

"For you to come to the Black Pyramid at once."

"Given my current disposition, I really hope that doesn't mean what it sounds like."

"Do not trifle with me, alien." Mumm-Ra's words seethed with anger at Alluro's impertinence. "I am in no mood for your sarcasm."

"What could be so damned important that you'd wake me up this early?"

"How would you like to help me in breaking Lion-O's will into shards so numerous that none could piece it back together?" Alluro's eyes fluttered open. "Warp his mind until he cannot tell his right hand from his left?"

"Sounds like an ambitious weekend. However, my talents are rather limited to implanting suggestions and suppressing will."

"I only need your ability to create a link to another's mind. Before you ask what is in it for you, allow me to tell you something." By the time he was finished explaining the curse had had placed on Lion-O, Alluro was sitting upright and fully alert.

"How in the great bloody fuck did you do that?!"

"I have done that and more, but I have need of your ability to truly destroy Lion-O. So, are you interested?" Before the question had fully left his lips, Alluro had dressed himself.

"I'll be there as soon as I can!"

"Now that we have the room to ourselves," Pumyra began after the dishes had been collected and the twins had departed, "there are some things I feel need to be brought up."

"All ears," Panthro said. "What about Cheetara?"

"I can fill her in when she and Lion-O get back, but I think she'll notice some of what I think might happen." The other gathered ThunderCats remained silent, expectant gazes locked solely upon her. A shy person by nature, her tenure as a healer on Thundera had given her the ability to overcome that barrier in regards to discussing matters related to her profession. "I'm concerned about Lion-O's mental state as this continues."

"Specifically, how he... she..."

"For now I think feminine gender pronouns might be best, Tygra."

"Very well. How she reacted at the mention of me accompanying her to the Treetop Kingdom?"

"It was like you'd goosed her," Panthro added.

"Has Lion-O ever shown any male homophobic behaviors?" Pumyra asked. Both men shook their heads in the negative.

"Lion-O knows me," Tygra said, his voice betraying bewilderment. "H... SHE knows I would NEVER take advantage like that!"

"I think that's something we can drop on Mumm-Ra's doorstep," Panthro said to him. "She wouldn't so much as look at you, and she looked like sleep hadn't been easy."

"Okay, we can put that aside for now," Pumyra said. "What I'm concerned about is how her now body will affect her mind."

"Hormones," Tygra said at once. "Complete with being in the most urgent phase of the female reproductive cycle." Tygra, she thought, could dry out even a desert with the way he spoke. She squelched that rather uncharitable thought.

"Yes, that is a part of it."

"Just lay it out for us, Pumyra," Panthro said with worry clear on his face.

"Lion-O has grown up male," she began, "with male values taught to him and from a male point of view coupled with the influence of male hormones."

"And now that the balance of his hormones has see-sawed to the female side..." Tygra began.

"Yes. Lion-O still has the mind of a man, but it's under the influence of a woman's hormones. I don't see any problems in the short term, but the longer his male psyche deals with female drives and the challenges of BEING a woman... I have no idea what kind of damage Lion-O could endure."

"How hard can it be to be a woman?"

"Ever seen one in the grip of PMS, Panthro?" Pumyra asked archly. "Imagine someone who was born and raised a man dealing with that."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh. Her new balance of hormones and new bodily processes are gonna affect her sooner or later and I'm not at all sure Lion-O will be able to cope. You've all known her longer than I have. Has she ever been so caustic before?"

"I was chalking that up to the rude surprise," Panthro replied. "If someone changed me so fundamentally, I'd be pretty pissed off myself."

"I agree," said Tygra. "I don't see a new body chemistry affecting Lion-O so soon. But," he placed his hands on the table, palm-down, "we have to find a way to reverse this. Soon."


	4. Man, I Feel Like a Woman

"I hate this..." Lion-O muttered as she stood in the chamber which housed the Sword of Omens. The cool air moved about her form, clad in a pale blue unitard and thick-soled boots, and against her better judgment she looked down. Observed dispassionately, her body was rather attractive she had to admit. If she had been in her real body and had seen the one viewed in the mirror since yesterday, she might have given it a brief look of appraisal. The Sword dangled in her right hand, lengthened blade nearly scraping the floor and hardly stirred when the door slid open behind her.

"You were right," Lion-O said, her voice dejected. "It didn't work."

"I told you it couldn't be that easy," Cheetara said as she came up to Lion-O's right and placed a hand on the smaller woman's shoulder.

"It's pulled my ass out of more fires than I care to admit," Lion-O began, despair beginning to give way to anger, "it's thawed out frozen Wollo orchards, split giant rocks, sent Mumm-Ra packing... it even FLEW me out of a damn VOLCANO!" She brought the sacred blade to eye level. Her teeth began to grind and her face grew hot from rising anger.

"But the Eye has no power over the physical shape of matter," the ghostly voice of Jaga said as his spectre appeared before her. "As the Annointment Trials should have shown you, you do not need to rely upon the Sword for every situation. It is not all-powerful."

"Yeah," Lion-O said, her anger deflated as though with a pin. "It couldn't show me anything about Grune when I used sight beyond sight."

"You are still the Lord of the ThunderCats, Lion-O. I know you are angry, and you have every right to be, but do not let that anger cloud your judgment." Jaga faded from view, yet Lion-O's anger still simmered beneath the despair. The blade shrank to its normal length before she placed it in the claw shield and adhered it to her hip.

"At least I can still use it," she said, "but this still bites what used to be my balls."

"Those would be your ovaries, now," Cheetara said with a slight chuckle in her voice.

"I needed to know that... why?"

"Did Tygra teach you anything about female anatomy?"

"The subject of women never really came up."

"I'm not surprised," Cheetara said as they left the Sword Chamber and turned left toward the ThunderTank's maintenance hangar. "Tygra can be rather... shy when it comes to subjects involving women."

"He likes men?" Lion-O, at the moment, found that notion comforting especially as thoughts of that dream returned.

"No," Cheetara replied, "it's just that his list of lovers is rather short."

"Can't be shorter than mine," she replied as hewn stone gave way to more modern-looking corridors.

"Unless you and Willa have anything going on I don't know about, then you're both batting zero."

"Seriously?! He's still..."

"Oh, yes." Lion-O found herself stunned silent for the rest of the trip to the hangar after one final utterance.

"That might actually explain some things."

"Have I ever told you," Alluro said as he entered Mumm-Ra's tomb chamber, "that you really need to hire a decorator for this place?" The demonic mage said nothing as the Lunattak drew closer. "Since I'm still among the living, I'll take it that you didn't summon me here to kill me."

"If I had wished to, I would have done so by now," Mumm-Ra said. "I only sealed your lot in stone on the off chance you might be of use to me."

"Nice to know where I and mine stand," he said sourly before doing a double-take at the images of the now-female Lion-O's dream playing out. "I didn't know you were into Thunder-porn."

"This," the sorcerer began, "is the dream I inflicted on him - her - last night."

"You certainly made Lion-O into a looker..." Alluro trailed off before looking around.

"Beauty can be its own curse... What the hell are you looking for?"

"A box of tissues and a bottle of lotion. If I find those, I am outta here."

"DO NOT MOCK ME!" Mumm-Ra thundered. "I have no need for such frivilous activities."

"Oh, yes," Alluro said wryly, "women must beat down your door. How DO you keep them off?"

"Alluro?"

"Hm?"

"Exactly how long were you planning on living after you got here?" The silence grew thick in the still air of the tomb chamber, neither speaking for several moments. "That's what I thought."

"So, um... If you were able to conjure this from Lion-O's mind, why do you need my help?" Alluro asked, clearly not wishing to follow the previous line of discussion any further.

"I could only draw upon what was already in her mind."

"I had no idea that Lion-O was gay..."

"The pleasure I forced her to feel was a reaction from her new body. Lion-O has no idea how powerful a woman's drives can be."

"And with no experience, she's all but defenseless against them. Mumm-Ra, I must say, you are one right BASTARD! This still doesn't explain my part in all this."

"Your ability to create psionic links," he began, shuffling closer to the long-limbed Lunattak, "will allow me to create nightmares from what is not in her mind."

"I see," he said at length. "With my power, you can plant whatever nightmares you want in her pretty little head. I like the sound of this more and more, Mumm-Ra!"

"So glad you do. Especially since I closed my pyramid off from the outside world." Within the cauldron, the images of whirling cylcones and sand obscured all vision with crackling arcs of lighting shooting at random amid the chaos.

"Oh. That's just great," Alluro snapped. "Now I'm stuck here. And since the primary occupant of this edifice is... well... a FUCKING ZOMBIE SORCERER, what am I supposed to do about food?!" The grinding of stone on stone drew Alluro's gaze to a table which rose from the floor. Fruits of all descritiptions, asparagus, roasted potatoes running over with melted butter and cheese, and steaks of varied meats sat steaming upon its surface on trays of gleaming silver and amid pitchers of nectars, wines, milk, and water. "You... certainly know how to make person feel at home in a crypt," Alluro said weakly.

"I know the weaknesses of being wrapped in mortal flesh," Mumm-Ra said. "Eat up. There is still time before we need tend to the newest woman in the ThunderCat cabal."

Lion-O gazed about at the passing trees as Cheetara steered the ThunderTank toward the grotto of the Warrior Maidens. She uncrossed and recrossed her legs for the umpteenth time, unwilling to think about the changed presence in her crotch and the feminine clothes she was wearing.

"You okay over there?" Cheetara asked over the purr of the mighty engine.

"Great," she groused, "just great. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I still have breasts. Today would be just pefect if, y'know, I didn't have a vagina and... um..."

"And what?"

"Nothing." She thought of the dream from the night before and shuddered. Lion-O looked at her from the corner of her eye, tracing the curves she had longed to touch, and felt her heart threaten to break.

"Stop acting as though being a woman is a death sentence," Cheetara said. "There are a lot of positive things that go with being female."

"Like this constant tingling between my legs? Y'know, in the place where I used to have a..."

"That's just bad timing," Cheetara replied. "Pumyra told us you were at the height of the reproductive cycle. It's a lot different for females."

"Really?"

"Really. So, how does this relate to Tygra?" Lion-O froze in place, memories of that nightmare resurging.

"Um... keep in mind he didn't do anything..."

"Tygra couldn't handle his own dick with a crane."

"WHAT?" Cheetara cast her a sidelong conspiritorial look.

"I mean to help you deal with your new gender, and that means talking woman-to-woman. I know you never thought you'd hear me say anything like that."

"No kidding..."

"But there's a lot you have no idea about. I can help you through it, and I am going to do just that. No matter what."

"I..." Lion-O shook her head, crimson tresses whirling about. "Just don't expect this to last too long. Thank you." She looked at the Cheetah woman, eyes tracing the curves of her breasts and could nearly feel them beneath her hands.

"It was a pretty bad dream, I take it," Cheetara said out of the blue. Lion-O nearly leapt out of her seat.

"What?"

"It's hard to lie to someone with a sixth sense and some experience," Cheetara said calmly. "You dreamed about Tygra."

"I thought you had visions, not telepathy."

"You all of a sudden avoid Tygra like the plague, what am I supposed to think? You had a nighmare about him and I doubt it was from past experience."

"That is... a little scary."

"I saw you jerk away from him. It wasn't tough to figure out. You know that he would never take advantage of you."

"I know that, but..."

"You had an intense dream. Given what's happened, I understand." They drove on in silence for several moments. "It was one of THOSE dreams."

"What?"

"One that left your sheets soaked."

"How did you..."

"I know a thing or two about being female," Cheetara said with a light laugh. "Whatever happened is nothing for you to be ashamed of."

"I hated it," Lion-O said before she could stop herself.

"Tell me about it?"

"I..." Lion-O froze, unsure of what to say. While she was no expert in interpersonal diplomacy, she was fairly certain that no conversation with the woman she hoped to have a relationship with one day should start with details of kissing every inch of her body before - not to put too fine a point on it - placing her on a bed strewn with rose petals and doing a rather apt impression of a piledriver. "For some reason, I was naked," she began, sneaking a cautious glance at Cheetara and relieved to find her paying attention forward. "I heard him at first, he kept saying how I was already turning into a... well..."

"Well?"

"I don't think you'll like that word."

"Slut?"

"That, yeah," Lion-O replied. "It was so... weird! I hated seeing him naked, hated the way he was talking to me, but my body - in the dream - kept getting revved up for it! Like I had no control!"

"Hmmm... And you've never had a dream like that about Tygra? Or any man?"

"Butter side up, my bread is." She'd heard Panthro use a similar phrase once.

"Then Mumm-Ra had to have manipulated your dream," Cheetara said, her voice and face hard. "Probably enhanced your body's reaction to the stimuli, too."

"So this is what's it's like to be reassured and uneasy all at once," Lion-O groused. "Fascinating."

"Tower to ThunderTank," Lynx-O's voice called over the comm.

"ThunderTank here," Lion-O replied.

"An unusual pattern of severe weather has suddenly appeared within the immediate area of the Black Pyramid," the aged Lynx said. "The Braille Board is showing me numerous cyclones as well as severe electrical interference. I am afraid I cannot pierce it at this time."

"Wonderful."

"Also, I detected Alluro emerging from Darkside on an ice runner. His course track suggested the Black Pyramid to be his destination."

"Oh. Crap." Lion-O's heart sank to her stomach at that.

"Thank you, Lynx-O, Cheetara said. "ThunderTank out."

"DAMNIT!" Lion-O shrieked, pounding the console before her with a closed fist.

"Don't do this to yourself," Cheetara said softly. "Deciding not to raid Mumm-Ra's lair was the responsible decision."

"But, it doesn't look like it was the right one."

"You were concerned for our safety. As was right and proper. You made the right call."

"I hope so."

"Y'know something, Tygra? I fucking HATE magic." Pumyra leaned back, rubbing her eyes with her right hand after having spent the better part of an hour going over Lion-O's biometric data. Tygra looked up in surprise at her outburst. He'd never heard her say anything stronger than "poop" before. "It's an affront to rational science!"

"Tell Mumm-Ra that," Tygra answered. "I'm still trying to figure out which window Conservation of Mass decided to get thrown out of." Tygra called up his data on Lion-O as a man and compared to to the new data of his female body. "Fully fifty-seven percent of his body mass is just... gone!"

"Not exactly current on physics here."

"Matter and energy can't be created or destroyed. One becomes the other."

"Sounds pretty elegant."

"So, where did over half of Lion-O's body go?" Tygra rose from his seat and stretched, hands at the small of his back and popping noises coming from his spine.

"Some of it could have made up his new organs," Pumyra offered weakly.

"I find myself agreeing with your first statement," Tygra said. "I have NO explanation for this." Nor for why she looked at me as if I were a potential rapist this morning, he thought. "How about his... HER... readings?"

"Perfectly normal for a woman," Pumyra said. "But, I hate to think about how she'll react when the endometrium lining gets forced out of her uterus." The lining to which a woman's fertilized egg stuck in order to grow in the uterus.

"Is it in place?"

"Yes," Pumyra said, "and it appears to be rather thick."

"Damn." Severe cramping coupled with a heavy flow during menstruation. "Pumyra, you might want to have some clothes brought over. We're really going to need you in another week."

"I'll clear my calendar," she said with a small grin. "I see you're thinking what I'm thinking."

"I really wish I wasn't." Lion-O on a period, he thought, Jaga help us all.

"What have we here?" Alluro said after cleaning the meat off a drumstick. "Mutants. Disgusting little fuckers."

"On that we agree," Mum-Ra said, "but they are sometimes useful."

"By sometimes, you mean almost never?"

"I'll give you that one," Mumm-Ra replied. "They are on the fringes of Warrior Maiden territory."

"Hardly trying to gather intelligence. How can they gather what they don't have the first clue about? I bet they just hope to ogle pretty women. Pigs."

"Useful pigs, in this case. It seems I need your talents sooner than I thought."

"Do tell. And, where did you get this wine? It's exquisite."

"Do try to lay off on it for a moment. How much influence can your Psych Club's orb have from here?"

"It's fairly limited, I must say," Alluro said before picking a stray bit of meat from between his teeth. "It works best when I'm actually near someone."

"I don't need a compulsion. Just a very strong suggestion."

"Suggest that the Lady of the ThunderCats takes a walk toward a certain place?"

"Exactly."

"Seems doable, but what if she can still kick their asses?"

"It can't hurt to try, now can it?"

"No, Mumm-Ra," Alluro said with a sadistic leer. "No, it cannot hurt to try."


	5. Different Strength

"Wanna know something?" Lion-O asked as she and Cheetara trod the wooden walkways spanning the mammoth trees of the Treetop Kingdom. "I expected the men here to take a gander, but women too?" Patches of golden sunlight dappled the wood beneath their feet where it penetrated the dense canopy of leaves above and left pools of greenish-tinted shadows in odd corners. Lion-O felt her skin crawl slightly at the attention and resisted the urge to cover her rear (WHY does it have to sway like that?!) with her hands.

"This is a tribe of warrior women," Cheetara explained in a soft voice.

"Right. Still weird. I guess some of them want to teach me some pretty unique things about being a woman."

"You never minded the looks they cast you before." Was that a faint haughty tone in her voice? "What's the difference?"

"I share the same equipment at the moment?"

"Some women prefer women," she said simply.

"It's just..." Just that right now I can relate with that, Lion-O thought as she snuck a quick glance at Cheetara's lithe body and tight muscles. "Oh, I can't really put it in words. Sorry I brought it up."

"Hey, there," said a honeyed voice from the right. She was of the same height as Lion-O, and had the same general build, but the resemblance ended there. She leaned against the rope railing of the walkway, the picture of casual confidence. Whipcord muscle showed on her exposed abdomen and limbs and did nothing to detract from the feminine beauty of her hips and breasts, covered in green-dyed furs. Golden waterfalls of hair framed a surprisingly delicate face with fey blue eyes tracing every inch of Lion-O's new body. She had seen this one on her many visits to the wood, yet had never learned her name. Like most of the Warrior Maidens, her athletic musculature served to enhance her feminine charms.

"Um... hi?" Lion-O squeaked, suddenly nervous. The blonde woman grinned wolfishly. "I'm... kinda taken," she added.

"Too bad," she replied with a toss of her tresses and a smoldering look locked onto Lion-O's eyes. "I could show you things you never even considered." Her throat dried out at the sheer audacity of the come-on. Cheetara's hand grasped at her own. Lion-O looked up to see the Cheetah and the human giving each other intense stares that took in everything, processed it, the categorized it in the space of seconds.

"Sorry, Sara," Cheetara said. "I beat you to the punch."

What. The. CRAP?! Lion-O thought. The gathered warrior women gave slight gasps, some engaging in whispered conversations while Sara blinked once and nodded before sauntering closer.

"I had a feeling about you," she said, looking firmly at Cheetara and breaking eye contact as she passed. Her hand fell on Lion-O's shoulder and offered a soft squeeze. "Nice catch." The confrontation apparently over, all present went back to their daily routine.

"Okay, what the hell just happened?" she asked after they'd resumed their trek to Willa's hut.

"A lot."

"Yeah, I gathered that. What was with the stare-down?!"

"We were sizing each other up," Cheetara explained, their fingers still twined together. Lion-O wished they could stay that way. "In more polite circles, it involves checking out looks, jewelry, clothing, body shape..."

"Um, you looked ready to start a fight there."

"And in situations like this, muscle build, bearing, can she kick my ass? That sort of thing. When a woman is involved, men do that as well." Cheetara shook her head and a wry grin appeared on her lips. "Guess who won?"

"You just... claimed me."

"Yes."

"And won."

"Yes."

Lion-O thought furiously for a moment, and felt a faint hope that maybe, just maybe, what she felt for Cheetara could be reciprocated. "But, why? I wouldn't have just happily followed her to the nearest bed." She noticed Cheetara's features soften slightly at that. "Sara... really isn't my type. Was that the right thing to say?"

"Yes, Lion-O," Cheetara replied with a small smile. "Yes it was."

"You're... Lion-O?" Willa asked from her wicker throne. Her eyes were wide after the end of their tale.

"In the newly-altered flesh," she said.

"I... I... " Willa looked deep into her eyes before falling back into her throne. "By the Spirits, you are...! WHAT HAPPENED?" Lion-O told her at length, leaving out the parts concerning that dream. "Incredible..."

"I take it you know nothing about that water," Lion-O said dejectedly.

"Not the first thing. This..."

"Is an improvement?" she asked archly.

"No. This is unnatural."

"I agree, Willa."

"Water that can do such a thing," she said, easing back into her throne of wicker decocrated with feathers. "Turn a man into a woman. From one leader to another, this must be hard on you."

"Yes." It was all Lion-O trusted herself to say.

"Should you need any... ah... help, I and mine will do all we can to give it," Willa said solemnly.

"On behalf of I and mine," Lion-O replied with equal gravity, "I extend our gratitude." She rolled her shoulders, feeling restless. "I... think I'll go get some air."

"Will you be okay on your own?" Cheetara asked, worry on her face.

"I'll be fine. Everyone knows who I'm with." She couldn't quite keep the hope out of her voice.

"How close is she?" Willa asked as Lion-O left. She didn't need to elaborate.

"A week, more or less. And, we think it's gonna be a doozy." Willa whistled through her teeth.

"Have you told him... her... about it?"

"We haven't had a chance to yet. I plan to when we get back." A chill tingle began to work up her spine, completely unrelated to the topic of the now-female Lion-O's first menstruation.

"What's troubling you?"

"Just a very bad feeling about letting her walk off alone like that."

"Then go follow her," Willa said. "Take a few of my warriors with you."

"That's very generous, thank you."

"I've learned to trust your instincts," Willa replied with a nod.

She claimed me, Lion-O thought as she meandered among the ancient trees of Willa's home, soft grass cushioning her boots and muting her footfalls. She let her legs go where they would as her mind chased that thought.

Had it just been to keep that Sara woman at bay? Despite the strangeness of her current situation, Sara's advance had stoked the maddening feeling in her stomach and groin which grew harder and harder to ignore with each flare-up. It was though she were losing control of her body to urges both familiar and alien. As a man, such excitement was familiar yet as a woman the drive was far more intense. It was very nearly mindless, just a maw of need that demanded to be filled.

She thought about how Cheetara had looked after having said Sara wasn't her type. What did it mean? Did she have some feelings for her beyond platonic?

The feeling began to grow stronger and Lion-O shook her head in frustration, thinking thoughts of cold showers in hopes of dousing the rising heat.

"What are we doing here again?" Jackalman asked as he, Slythe, and Monkian crouched among low shrubbery amid the trees ringing a modertaely large clearing.

"Mumm-Ra told uss to be here," Slythe groused, "and watch for ssomething. Ssaid we'd know when we ssaw it."

"Why not just have his Lunattak pals do it?" Monkian said in a sour tone. "Not like he needs us anymore."

"Whatever this is about," Jackalman mused, "if we pull it off, Mumm-Ra might bring us back into his good graces."

"What good gracess?" Slythe shot back. "We were never more than pawnss to that bastard. Even if thiss comess off, do you think we'll ssee anything good from it?"

"Certainly has your number," Alluro said. The Psych Club hung suspended above the waters of the cauldron in which the image of the hiding Mutants was displayed. "It makes one wonder why they're even bothering at this point."

"Probably because I'll kill them if they ever stop toeing the line," Mumm-Ra said as he drew up beside Alluro. "They may be inept, but even they can serve as decoys now and again."

"Not to mention cannon fodder."

"It seems Slythe is not the only one who... has my number, as they say."

"One doesn't survive for as long as I have without looking for the wheels within the wheels," Alluro replied. "The show should begin in a moment or so. I must say, your magic is really helping my abilities!"

"This is merely a... I believe the term is a dry run," Mumm-Ra replied. "We shall wait a week or so to begin the real thing."

"Why so long? If this works..."

"Comedy and evil share one thing in common: timing. Lion-O shall soon enter a period," he did his best not to cackle at his own bon mot, "of physical and emotional turmoil that NO amount of explanations or lessons could have prepared her for."

"I see. Yes, that WOULD be the perfect time! Lion-O will be most vulnerable then."

"The voice of experience?"

"One also does not survive as long as I have without knowing the signs of Chilla's monthly and making preparations for it."

"I won't press for details."

"I never thought I'd say this, Mumm-Ra, but thank you."

Still utterly confused, Lion-O entered the clearing. She fought against the rising heat and desire, tried to puzzle her way through conflicting notions of Cheetara's feelings, and barely noticed the warning tingle of ambush just before it sprung. Slythe, Jackalman, and Monkian exploded from the brush, weapons ready and confusion on their faces. The maddening tingling was swept away by the rush of imminent battle. Lion-O was grateful for that.

"ThunderCatss are coming out of the woodwork thesse dayss," Slythe hissed. "And here iss one with a fake Ssword of Omenss." Caught up in the rush of something finally familiar, she donned the claw shield and drew the Sword. It reached battle length without command and she belatedly noticed something very wrong; both the shield and the Sword were far heavier than before...

No, she thought, I'm a lot weaker than before! Fear began to encroach on her thoughts and she shut it right back out. Yes, her weapon was heavier, and she couldn't reach many of the triggers in the claw shield, but they would still protect her. She was still a warrior, and more than a match for the three Mutants which had accosted her. She hoped.

"Only Lion-O can usse that blade," Slythe said as he stepped in a cautious circle. Realization dawned on his face. "Don't tell me.."

"Oh, this is too good to be true," Jackalman snickered.

"What... oh. OH!" All three laughed uproariously as she readied the Sword of Omens.

"Before I kill you, LADY of the ThunderCatss," Slythe said, "I am obliged to ask... What the fuck happened?"

"Before I kick your asses back to Castle Plun-Darr," Lion-O shot back, "I am obliged to respond. Fuck off!" She kept her features hard, doing all in her power not to show how heavy the shield and Sword were.

"That is just too cute, hoo-HOO!" Monkian shouted.

"Take her!" Slythe roared before all three charged.

Lion-O fought bravely, blocking a burst from the Simian face on Monkian's own shield. The impact slammed against the claw shield at an angle that tore it off of her arm just as Slythe's tail whipped at her left leg. Her balance disturbed, Jackalman's rush was met awkwardly and ended with her pinned to the ground with the Sword out of reach. Two rabbit punches to the ribs left her gasping for breath before a foot collided witht the side of her head. Stunned and unarmed, Lion-O could only lay there as she felt her arms forced behind her back and a cord wrapped tightly about them. She fought for all she was worth as her mobility was slowly robbed by constricting lengths of rope until she lay on the grass unable to move and utterly humiliated.

"LET ME... GMMPH!" A wad of cloth was shoved rudely into her mouth, held in place by a length of the same which wound about her jaw. Bound and gagged, she could only glare at her captors as they leered down at her.

"Easy enough," Monkian grunted as he glared down at her.

"We finally have it," Slythe said. "Now, what to do about she who brought it here?"

"I have some ideas," Jackalman said. "Let's get her... somewhere more comfortable." Lion-O thrashed against her bonds as best she could as rough hands grabbed and lifted her. Jackalman's grip on her ankles had not been secure, allowing her to twist her legs free for her feet to land directly on his right foot's instep. Jackalman hopped back, holding said foot in his hands and hopping on his remaining leg.

"That hurt, you little bitch!" he snarled. "Just for that, I'm first..." His jaw hung open just as a loud thwack sounded. Jackalman collapsed soon afterward to reveal Cheetara behind him with her staff drawn.

"You just don't get straight lines that good every day," she said, glaring daggers at Slythe and Monkian. The latter handed Lion-O off to Slythe before preparing his mace and shield

"Monkian, you moron, stop!" Slythe shouted before producing a knife and holding its edge to her throat with just enough pressure for a weal of blood to form. She saw Cheetara's eyes widen, but whatever flash of emotion had been them vanished before she could read it. "Sseemss we have a sstandoff," he said, his sibilant hiss returning now that the odds seemed back in his favor. "Not very bright of you to come russhing to the resscue."

"No, that would be me asking Lion-O if she's okay right now. The gag," she explained at the confused expressions. "The knife makes nodding a bad idea, too."

"Oh, right," Monkian said, drawing out his words. Lion-O rolled her eyes at him.

"Lion-O comess with uss, like it or not!" Slythe barked. "I know, you'll dassh right back to Cat'ss Lair and inform the otherss, then mount a proper resscue, but conssider the time that will take." Lion-O cringed at the thought, and the clear menace that came with it. The current gender situation added a whole new element to the prospect of being Slythe's captive. She remained stone silent, gag notwithstanding, not giving her limited voice to the horrors that image dredged up. She tested the ropes, finding no appreciable slack anywhere.

"No, Lion-O comes with me," Cheetara said, and she could not have missed the emphasis on the last word. Leaves rustled from above and behind. Monkian craned his neck and his eyes bulged.

"Um... Slythe..." he said.

"How many?"

"Enough to turn us into porcupines." Lion-O felt the defiance leave Slythe's arms before falling roughly to the grass and breated deeply air that didn't have his stink on it. Without another word, the two remaining Mutants turned tail and ran for the treeline, encouraged by arrows that only missed their targets from being fired in disdain. She rolled about until she spied Cheetara kneeling over her. And doing nothing that would result in being untied.

"Mmph?" she asked, rather eloquently in her opinion.

"Let's start with what you did wrong," Cheetara said evenly. "Everything."

"MMPH!"

"You tried to go thee-on-one the way you're used to," she began before stepping over Lion-O's prone form and started working on the knots. "You have to understand that you don't have the strength and reach you're accustomed to right now." Lion-O made a muted sound of acceptance. "You should have realized you were on the bad end of those odds and run."

"MMMM!"

"Glad I left that gag in," Cheetara muttered. Lion-O felt the ropes about her wrists begin to loosen. "I know you have a problem with running away, but that was the only option you really had." She had nothing for that one, and despite how it galled her Lion-O had to admit that Cheetara was right. Her arms now free - and breathing easier without the constricting ropes - she reached up to remove the gag and take a deep breath.

"You're right," she said without emphasis or inflection.

"I'm not saying you're weak," Cheetara went on in a much gentler voice as the coils about her upper legs loosened. "You're still our leader, and you're still strong. Just in different ways now. You have to learn your new strengths to compensate for your new limitations. Understand?"

"Nothing like bitter experience to teach a lesson," Lion-O said, thankful that Cheetara had softened the blows. "You're thinking I'm gonna be a woman for the long haul, aren't you?"

"It's a strong possibility," she replied after freeing Lion-O's ankles. The Lioness took the Cheetah's offered hand and rose to her feet. She thought about the ambush which had nearly ended with her... She chose not to continue that train any further, and considered Cheetara's words. The sting of losing to Slythe, Jackalman, and Monkian evened lessened a little.

"They almost pulled it off," Alluro said, shaking his head in disbelief. "They even used teamwork, to boot. Too bad their luck went south."

"I had actually intended for them to fail," Mumm-Ra said as the Psych Club returned to Alluro's hand. "Wine?" he asked, offering a crystal goblet filled with dark red liquid that rather resembled blood.

"Ever the gracious host, I see," Alluro said before accepting a taking a pull. "You have excellent taste in vintages. What year?"

"Nineteen forty-seven, as it was once measured on this planet."

"Do I want to know how long ago that was?"

"No."

"I could come to love magic," Alluro said before taking another appreciative sip.

"Offering to be my apprentice, are you?"

"Um... Not really, no. So, can I assume this was meant to further shake Lion-O's belief in his... HER... self?"

"Among other things, yes. You felt her fear at the thought of being gang-raped by the Mutants, did you not?"

"And trust me, it gave me some ideas. Even if that fear had been diluted by trust in her friends. Particularly that tasty tart, Cheetara." He finished the goblet and a pleasant buzz touched his head. "So, now we play the waiting game, I suppose." Alluro looked about. "Not all of us can sleep away a week." From the cauldron, the blue-hued form of Chilla rose. Nude and blank of face, the construct stepped toward him.

"Will that suffice?"

The ride back to the lair was silent. Lion-O's chin rested on her hand as she looked upon the passing grasslands while conflicting emotions and demands warred within. The most prominent as the trip went on, however, turned out to be the tingling heat. She was horny, she knew it, and found said situation supremely embarrassing.

I just lost a fight, she thought, why the HELL am I feeling... like this?! Did my body go insane and just not tell me? She belatedly noticed the small twitches her hips were making, slight circular motions which aggravated that part of her anatomy even more as...

"What is WRONG with me?!" she spat before realizing that she had put her mouth in gear before engaging her brain.

"You're horny," Cheetara said with an impish grin.

"I AM NOT..."

"Yes, you are. I can tell."

"You read minds now, too?"

"I can read hips," she said as Cat's Lair drew closer.

"What the hell is wrong with me," she muttered.

"Absolutely nothing."

"Then why," she said as they reached the drawbridge, "don't I see YOU acting like this?!"

"Women aren't always so supercharged," Cheetara explained. "Plus, you're new at this. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"So, how do I get rid of it?"

"I think you already know the answer to that." She whipped her head around to gape openly at Cheetara.

"You can NOT be serious!"

"There are two types of people," Cheetara said, slowing to park beneath the upraised paw that served as the maintenance hangar's walls and ceiling. "Those who do it, and those who lie about it."

"I CAN'T!" she shrieked. "Not like THIS!" Not the least of which, she had no idea what to actually DO... down there.

"The reason that feeling is so strong," Cheetara said, "is that women cycle once a month. Men do it several times a day."

"Oh, damn..."

"It's just a suggestion," Cheetara said.

"So, you've... uh... done that before?" Lion-O asked weakly. Cheetara gave her a wry look.

"What do you think?"

"Ah."

"By the way, Pumyra wants to talk to you after dinner tonight. Trust me, it's VERY important."

"Ah."

"Are you okay?"

"YEAH! Yeah, fine," Lion-O said, shaking her head clear of images that did not help the growing heat and desire in the slightest.

She stared at the enclosed shower stall, nearly insane from the combination of her body's raging demands for satisfaction and her mind's incessant replaying of images her recent conversation with Cheetara had planted. Lion-O refused to look down at herself, kept her eyes resolutely forward as she strode toward the shower.

"Cold," she said. "Cold as I can stand, then even colder. I'll turn that shower so low even Chilla would try to find a nice fire! Do that with myself." The fact that she had several times before as a man conveniently eluded her notice. "Okay, so Cheetara does it..." Another flash of heat and desire. "DAMNIT! Okay, cold shower, in and out, back into clothes, then to dinner. Can't let this get in the way. Be strong, man, be strong!"

Freshly showered, Lion-O emerged from her quarters feeling much more relaxed and in control though a sheen of pink colored her cheeks and her legs felt watery. She was actually not surprised to find Cheetara waiting by her door.

"Wow, am I hungry!" she said with great gusto. Cheetara said nothing, falling into step beside her. "Wonder what Snarf's making tonight?" It didn't occur to her that she was babbling.

"I see you took my advice." An icy finger trailed down her spine at Cheetara's statement. Wall-eyed, Lion-O looked over to find the other woman shivering with barely suppressed laughter and a knowing look in her eyes. "Dinner was over an hour ago."

"It... It was? I mean, of course it was! Forgot to check the clock when I woke up from my nap."

"You took a nap with the shower running?"

"In the shower. I feel better for it, though."

"I'll bet."

"I WAS NOT... doing that."

"Of course you weren't," Cheetara agreed. "And you didn't do it four times."

"Exactly... wait, WHAT?!"

"I could hear you through the door."

"Singing?" she offered weakly.

"Never heard it called that before."

"So, enjoy it?" she snapped.

"I actually did." Lion-O found herself speechless, her mouth opening and closing in the manner of a fish suddenly finding itself bereft of water. "It's good that you're... coming to know your new body. What you did was absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, Lion-O."

"Kinda used to doing that as a man," she said, not bothering to deny it. "It... It..."

"Felt so good?"

"And I couldn't STOP!" she shouted. "I lost count after four! Hell, I've never lasted after ONE!"

"There are some definite perks that come with womanhood."

"I... I could really get used to talking to you like this." Cheetara's arm wrapped about her slender shoulders.

"Snarf made a plate for you."

"Jaga, I can't BELIEVE I missed dinner because I was... um..."

"You don't have to say it if it makes you uncomfortable."

"Thank you. So, what does Pumyra want to talk about?"


	6. For you, I Can

It was well past first light, she noticed from what little she could see above the line of the comforter she lay beneath, and though she should have been up and about hours before Lion-O found that at present she didn't rightly give a damn about being up and on her feet. No one had harrassed her about staying in bed for so long, the comm hadn't buzzed so much as once and Snarf hadn't brought her breakfast in. Which was all fine and well since her appetite had seemingly gone on vacation. An inarticulate groan escaped her lips as what felt like her entire abdomen cramped as though trying to force out something abominable and she curled into a ball for the umpteenth time that morning. The door slid open just after the latest insult to her guts passed and she bit down on the blue streak that bubbled up from that torturous pit where rampant sexual desire had been mere days ago.

"I'd ask how you're feeling..." Cheetara's voice said from the other side of the covers.

"I don't have words vile enough," Lion-O replied. "Why, oh JAGA why, couldn't this ONLY be as bad as Pumyra said it would?!"

"You really should have some breakfast."

"Does an evisceration come with that? OH, DAMN!" She rode out the cramp, teeth clenched against the scream building in her throat from a tide of an agony so pure it must have been elemental. Or, at least it seemed so to her and at that moment hers was the only opinion she cared about. "Did Mumm-Ra enhance this, too?"

"Pumyra told you this would probably be a bad one."

"Bad? Bad is stubbing my toe in the dark! Bad is hitting my funny bone by accident!"

"You should really get out of bed."

"Not unless I ABSOLUTELY have to." Lion-O retreated entirely beneath the comforter.

"Lion-O." She heard the long-suffering patience in Cheetara's voice. "Have you changed your... you know?"

"And now I absolutely have to get out of bed," she griped.

"Pumyra and I were very clear on what can happen if you don't change it regularly." Lion-O reluctantly pushed aside the comforter and rose from the warmth of the bed with motions more reluctant still. She padded toward the bathroom, ignoring the strange feel of the... thing... resting against the apex of her legs and studiously looking everywhere except the shower before forcing herself to look at the small packet resting on the sink beneath the mirror.

Two Days Prior:

Having eaten and feeling much more in control of her body (the raging fire had smoldered down to a dull ember after her shower and had nothing to do with cold water of any sort), Lion-O was seated before Pumyra in one of the swivel chairs dotted along the length of the lab table in the center of the infirmary. She didn't look at the bed with the stirrups nor think of that exam in which Pumyra had boldly gone where no one had gone before. Cheetara sat at her side and she felt the Cheetah's hand close over hers.

"It's time you knew something else about your new body," Pumyra said, her voice and posture the epitome of calm. "And, no, this won't involve you putting your feet in the stirrups again."

"Good."

"Yet." Lion-O's newly discovered inner snarker found it had nothing for that. Pumyra handed over a datapad on which was a diagram of a female body with callouts to several points in the abdomen. "I'm told Tygra hasn't explained much about the female anatomy."

"Other than 'Women have one', no."

"Well," Pumyra said, picking up her own datapad and synching it to the one in Lion-O's hand. The image zoomed in to focus on the abdomen, minus the stomach and other related parts. "What you're seeing is your uterus, where any cub..."

"Okay, stop the bus," Lion-O said. "There is no WAY..."

"Lion-O, stop," Cheetara said, tightening her grip. "This is important." The quiet steel in those words stopped any tirade she could ready cold.

"No one is expecting you to conceive. Judging by your reaction, you really don't know much about reproduction do you?"

"I know the basic mechanics of it." Pumyra's only reaction was an arched eyebrow.

"I didn't think I'd have to start with so basic a biology lesson," Pumyra said. "I really should talk to Tygra about having been so lax on this. Anyway, from the beginning." The image shifted to one of the ovoid shapes connected to the uterus by narrow tubes.

"Ovaries, right?"

"Very good. Your eggs are stored here. In your male body, they would store sperm and I hope I don't need to tell you where they would be. Once per month, an egg is released from one, travelling down the fallopian tubes into the uterus."

"Okay," she replied while an odd sensation of nervousness crept over her. Onscreen, a layer appeared along the walls of the uterus. Lion-O found it much easier to think of it as an image and not a representation of her own new anatomy. "What you're seeing is the endometrium layer. This holds the egg in place until fertilization."

"Since that's not gonna happen," Lion-O replied, "what happens next?" A squeeze from Cheetara's hand confirmed that this was not going somewhere fun.

"In the event that the egg isn't fertilized, the body excretes the egg and the layer," Pumyra continued in an entirely clinical voice completely devoid of emotion.

"Let me guess where it excretes from..." Lion-O said slowly. Dread formed in her stomach, briefly dousing the ember of arousal.

"Your vagina, yes," Pumyra replied. "And no, I won't use a euphemism for it."

"You need to be prepared for this," Cheetara said, breaking her silence. "Just letting you stumble over this on your own would be a disaster."

"I'm afraid to ask, but how so?"

"The layer is excreted with a small amount of blood..." Before Pumyra could go any further, Lion-O leapt to her feet.

"Blood," she said, not quite keeping the storm of emotions out of her voice despite her best futile efforts. "Blood! From..."

"Your..."

"I know what it's called!"

"Calm down, Lion-O!" Cheetara exclaimed. She tried to slow her breathing, calm her mind the way Tygra had taught her and after several slow breaths found some measure of sanity.

"Very little of it is actual blood," Pumyra went on as though Lion-O's outburst had never happened. "If it was," she said somewhat archly, "we'd need transfusions each month. Please sit down." Lion-O complied, her world throroughly shaken yet again. "The layer is excreted over the course of several days..."

"Oh, hell."

"... via moderate to severe abdominal cramping," Pumyra finished.

"And..." A nervous swallow. "And how long does this last?"

"Three to five days."

"Shit..." Cheetara gave her hand another squeeze. "All women go through this?"

"To greater or lesser degrees," Cheetara said, taking over the conversation. "The heavier your cramps, the heavier your flow. It can change from day to day."

"Painful and unpredictable. Wonderful."

"The entirety lasts from eight to ten days," Pumyra supplied, "and so far yours has been the easiest."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"To think I'd talk about this with the Lord of the ThunderCats," Pumyra said with an ironic shake of her head. "The days leading up to actual menstruation can happen in different ways. Yours, in this case, was extreme sexual arousal."

"How did... I mean... What makes you think so?" she asked in her best innocent voice.

"Logic. First, the analysis of your hormone levels. I won't bore you with the details. Second, that rosy glow on your face. That, coupled with the scent of soap and shampoo which indicates you just enjoyed a shower, and missed dinner which you never do, tells me that you've recently explored your new sexual organs. I hope you enjoyed yourself?" she concluded with a look toward Cheetara.

"More than once," she responded. Lion-O felt her cheeks burn.

"It's perfectly natural to..."

"So I've been told," Lion-O nearly snapped.

"It'll stay between us," Cheetara said solemnly. Lion-O felt herself grin before Pumyra turned about in her chair and then back with a packet in her hand.

"These pads..."

"I get you," she said, grin faltering and mood worsening. "I have to... wear those." Humiliation added its weight to the depression which was creeping in through the abscence of that heat. She almost wished it was still going full force in the face of this particular bit of womanly wisdom.

"Remember to change them at LEAST every three hours," Pumyra said. "These are simple cotton and nowhere near as absorbent as the synthetic fibers we had on Thundera. If you don't, you could become very ill, Lion-O." Pumyra's gaze bore into her own with an intensity she never had thought the Puma capable of. "These pads reduce the risk significantly, but not entirely."

"Yeah. Yeah, I hear you." She took the pads and rose without another word to leave.

"You realize she's only concerned for your well being?" Cheetara asked as they made the trip from the infirmary back to Lion-O's chambers.

"Still doesn't make this any easier."

"Mind if I tell you something?"

"Sure," she said listlessly.

"I started this at thirteen and my mother had taken me aside the year before to explain what changes I was about to go through. Even then, it wasn't easy."

"You get these... things bad too?"

"You don't know how strong yours is going to be," she chided. "I've had years of experience with this, and I had almost a year's warning. You've never dealt with it before and you've had maybe two days to get accustomed to it. No one will expect you to adjust overnight."

"So, bad for you?" Cheetara sighed.

"At times, very bad. It's not a uniform process, Lion-O."

"It's... this is all so confusing."

"Your mind knows one thing, your body another, and the latter's drives are more than you've ever dealt with before." Lion-O's shoulders slumped even further.

"Keep this off the record?" Cheetara pantomimed sipping her lips shut. "I like..." You. "...women."

"Go on."

"But, this stupid body of mine didn't care about that! It just wanted to go at it!"

"Your body is different, but your heart is the same," she said as the door to her chambers drew near. "The more you know about how your body responds, the easier it'll be for you do deal with... urges."

"You're telling me to... like in the shower..."

"I'm saying it can't hurt." Lion-O digested that for a moment before a small smile touched her lips.

"Tygra never mentioned doing that, either. I just kinda... found out by accident."

"Tygra's waiting for that special someone."

"You were kinda harsh talking about him earlier."

"Oh, that," Cheetara said, cheeks slightly flushed. "We... dated. A long time ago."

"Didn't go anywhere?" She shook her head.

"We... weren't right for each other."

"Any idea who may be right for you?" She noticed Cheetara pause, her face now flushed with red.

"After this mess is sorted out, I'll tell you." She shook herself slightly as if trying to maintain control.

"You can tell me now."

"It's... complicated."

"Boy, do I know that..." They each gasped, looking into each other's eyes. Cheetara's features relaxed ever so slightly. "Is it..." Her words were silenced as Cheetara's lips found hers and the other woman's arms wrapped about her. Lips opened as hands carressed each other's backs and Lion-O felt love and desire explode, different from the mindless lust of before. This, THIS was what she wanted, more than anything in the world and for once her current state of womanhood was irrelevant. After an eternity of seconds they parted and she was shocked to find tears on Cheetara's face. On instinct, she reached up and wiped them away. Surprisingly, her own cheeks were wet.

"I've wanted to do that for so long now," Cheetara said, her voice husky. "I just never imagined it would be like this."

"But, you can't," Lion-O said, "with me like this."

"It's... not my preference," she admitted and her heart threatened to shatter, "but you're still you. No matter what gender you are at the moment." Cheetara's hands found her own, their fingers twining together. Silence stretched between them, neither having any clue what to say.

"I love you." Those three words slipped past the barricade Lion-O had spent desperate seconds trying to clear.

"And I, you," Cheetara said formally before smiling with the warmth of the sun. "You're blushing."

"Um, so are you." Lion-O couldn't help but chuckle.

"So I am," Cheetara replied with a throaty giggle of her own. Without another word, they entered Lion-O's chambers.

Present Day

Lion-O emerged from the bathroom after another shower and with a fresh pad in place. Moving around seemed to help, or was at least a distraction from the cramping and discomfort. Cheetara sat on the bed and despite herself she recalled that night. It had been a new experience for both of them, and in many ways.

"Think Snarf's up to warming up some breakfast?"

"Personally, I'd love the company."

"Oh, how disgustingly cute," Alluro said with a sneer. Above the image in the cauldron, his Psych Club hung suspended by several gossamer-thin wires of silver stretching from the handle to spaces on the floor beyond the circular pool. "How much longer, Mumm-Ra?"

"I am nearly done," the mummy replied. "Love," he spat as his hands weaved magic about the cauldron in violent shades of purple and red. "They think it's so powerful."

"I look forward to proving them wrong." Alluro glanced back at the broken form of the Chilla construct.


	7. What is Reality? Part One

Lion-O opened her eyes only to be greeted with white. Walls, floor, ceiling, all thick white padding in a grid shaped pattern. Her arms refused to move from about her lower chest. A coarse jacket of the same shade of white adorned her torso with sleeves extending around to her back. Her lean legs were bare save for a pair of ankle-high booties coupled with anklets linked by coiled cord only long enough to allow awkwardly short steps and her pelvis was adorned in a garment that could only charitably be called underwear. She struggled for a moment more without success, ignoring the cold air and rising panic.

"HEY!" No one answered. "WHERE AM I? SHOW YOURSELF, DAMNIT!" In the ensuing silence, Lion-O took stock of her situation and came up with distressingly little. One moment, she had laid down to sleep with the aid of an herbal blend from Pumyra, then nothing. She got her feet squarely underneath and rose with an effort. Her senses felt fuzzy about the edges, her legs a bit weak. A side-effect of the sleeping medicine? "Okay, this isn't funny." The last came out in worried tones, wavering and uncertain. A section of padded wall slid up to reveal the shilouette of a man.

"It never is," he said in a long-suffering voice before entering. He was of Leopard descent, all lean muscle outlined by the white tunic and pants he wore. Brownish skin dotted with spots matched his close-cut hair and a resigned expression rested on his face. "So, feeling cooperative today, Princess?"

"PRINCESS?!"

"I guess not," he replied with slumped shoulders. "Why do I even bother asking?"

"Who..."

"Tezri," he said. "Just like yesterday, and the day before, etcetera and so forth. Now, are you gonna make this easy today?"

"Make WHAT easy?!"

"My job." Lion-O saw the tag on his tunic which proclaimed him to be an orderly. "Oh, no breakfast today. The new doc in charge of you said it'll interfere with treatment. Or something. Now, you really have to remember about fighting me. The last time got you that ankle jewelry." She looked down at her semi-bound legs. "If you weren't so crafty at hiding nasty surprises, we'd even let you go around in more than a pair of panties and a straitjacket."

"You'd better start making sense!" Tezri only sighed.

"Look, Lea," he said, "I'm in no mood for this. I've explained time and again, and after five years I've gotten a little fed up." He touched a spot on his belt and a hovering chair steered into the room.

"Five years of what?!"

"Are you going to make this easy, or not," he said, his voice hard as steel and clearly expecting a negative response. "I've got scars from you, Lea, and I'm not gonna take any shit." Tezri produced a long, thin rod from behind his back, the tip crackling with electricity. "Look," he said, "I don't wanna resort to this. Be a good girl and work with me, okay? I mean, today IS my birthday and all, and here I am in this nuthouse. If you play nice with me, I can play nice with you." Lion-O fought down the rising dread. "A night without being restrained, maybe in a real bed. Hey, I got the admins to stop gagging you at night after that time you tried to bite your tongue off." What the fuck was he TALKING about?! "Hey, you can trust me. I've kept the others off."

Others. That struck a chord. "Keep away from me!"

"Hard way it is," Tezri said before thrusting with the black wand and stabbing its rounded tip into her side. Swarms of ants crawled over her skin as the electric shock took hold. She lay there on the floor, gasping as Tezri grasped an ankle and dragged her over the floor. Lion-O was helpless to resist as she was seated in the chair. Metal straps wound about her legs and torso, securing her to the chair as Tezri forced a bar between her teeth and tightened the strap at the back of her head. Bound, gagged, and with no hope of escape, Lion-O tried to ease back into the chair as it followed him along the antiseptic corridors beyond the door.

"Know what this place needs, Lea?" Tezri asked as the chair Lion-O was strapped to followed along on a field of null gravity. "Windows." Men and women in simple white clothes loitered about, their faces slack-jawed and drugged. "At least on the high-sec floors, y'know? Might do them some good to see the world outside the asylum." The bit between her teeth rendered a reply impossible. "This time of day, man, Thundera is beautiful. Really makes me wish I could be out in it."

Lea, she thought as her mind recovered from the electric shock. Why is he calling me Lea? And, Thundera?

"After about five years of explaining it all to you each day, like you don't remember," Tezri said, "I'm just fed up with the routine. You got a new doc today, and he thinks he's got what you need. Not that I'm holding out hope, mind you." Her eyes lighted over several stuporous men and women, all Thunderian, and most in some form of restraint. Many wore jackets similar to her own. "Personally, I think you're a lost cause," Tezri said as they rounded a corner into another corridor lined with monotonous walls and doors. A lift bank rested at the far end. "If it were up to me, you'd have been kept doped to the gills morning, noon, and night. BUT, you are the last heir of Lord Claudis, and King Tygra is paying good money to keep you here."

KING Tygra?! she wanted to shout.

"It's a real act of kindness, keeping the last of the old bloodline alive," Tezri went on. "With his son dead and you being, well, bat-shit loony, the succession of the throne was in real jeopardy for a while. But, King Tygra's doing all right by us all. Even has a kid on the way. Tygra and Cheetara, man did I call that one. I even won a good deal of cash on the bet."

Tygra... Cheetara... She shook her head and growled behind the gag. It was not real. It could not be real. They entered the cylindrical lift chamber and she felt a slight upward surge as the car engaged.

"Good thing you got put in the asylum wing of the Royal Medical Academy," Tezri said as the car shot upward. "Good food, good care, the best in your case. Even crazy as a rat in a backed-up shithouse, you get the best. Well, it could have been worse." Lion-O howled as Tezri's hand lightly cupped her right breast for a moment. "Much worse. It amazes me," he said, removing his hand as if it had never been there, "that you can go through therapists like most women go through boyfriends. Or girlfriends, since you say you prefer women. Hey, not here to judge." He raised his hands, placating. The doors opened again to reveal golden sunlight beaming through tri-polymer windows. Lion-O glanced out at the skyline filled with Thunderian architechture and her mind tilted. She had been screaming that none of this could be real yet... yet...

It was all too real.

She focused on the breathing techniques Tygra had taught her, slow breaths in and out until her custodian and her chair stopped before a door marked with simple words.

Dr. Allu Ro.

PhD.

Psychotherapy.

Lion-O studied those words before the door slid open and her chair followed Tezri in.

Golden sunlight beamed in through the plate glass panes of the office's windows. Lion-O saw the skyline beyond and knew it was Thundera. She could, on squinting, see Cat's Lair in the distance. Across the walnut-stained polymer desk, a high-backed chair was turned to let the occupant take in the view.

"Hmmmm..." she said, feeling fear despite herself. Aircars darted along in neat lines of traffic through a sky what was blue bordering on orange, a backdrop for a skyline of aesthetic majesty. Instinctively, she knew she beheld Thundera though logic and memory cried out against it.

"Dr. Ro," Tezri said.

"Right on time," the owner of the voice said. The chair spun about. The heavy eye ridges were the same along with the predatory grin and thinning white hair. A white coat and suit of black silk had replaced the outfit she knew him best for. "Ah, Lea. So nice to meet you. I am Dr. Allu Ro. Oh, my," he said as she glared at him. "Tezri, please remove that and leave us?"

"Of course," the Leopard said. The bit was wrenched from her teeth before the receeding steps of Tezri vanished behind the door.

"What game are you playing, Alluro?" she snarled.

"My, my," he said. "More than a textbook case of paranoid delusion and personality dissacoitation."

"Let me GO!"

"You met me all of five seconds ago, yet you have already found a place for me in your delusions," he said, seemingly awestruck. "Though, I don't really like being cast as a villian. I am here to help you, Lea."

"LION-O!"

"Ah. Yes," Alluro, or Allu Ro, said with fingers steepled before his lips. "I was afraid I'd have to deal with this first." He took in a deep breath and let it hiss slowly through his teeth. "Your name is Leanna, daughter of King Claudis."

"I told you, I AM LION-O!"

"For fifteen years," Alluro continued as though he hadn't heard her, "you have been increasingly immersed in a fantasy world of your own creation."

"What kind of sick mind game are you playing, Alluro?!"

"I am not one for games, Leanna, aside from the occaisional Snarfball match on the broadcast vids," he said. "You were admitted here five years ago and diagnosed with paranoid delusions and personality disassociation, both of which are accurate."

"GET OUT OF MY MIND!"

"As a psychiatrist, it's my job to do just the opposite, I'm afraid. The delusional structure is most fascinating." Alluro consulted his datapad for a moment. "As is normal, it requires little to no proof to sustain. What fascinates me is how... INTRICATE it is."

"You're using your psych club on me somehow!" Lion-O screamed, though she couldn't see it anywhere.

"My what?" Alluro asked, looking up with a confused expression.

"That club you have, the one that makes people obey you. I know it's here!"

"Obey... Leanna, if I had psionic abilities of any sort it would make my job so much easier." Alluro shook his head sadly. "I am intrigued as to how rapidly you can incorporate reality into your fantasy. I could make a career out of studying you, royal pedigree aside." He set the datapad aside before steepling his fingers beneath his chin and staring at her with level, calm eyes. "First, your fantasy about this Third Earth."

Stop it..." Her throat hurt from shouting so much. Fear and confusion welled within her as well as something strange. Doubt.

"A world where the surviving ThunderCats were marooned after fleeing Thundera's destruction. A Mutant raid forcing the ship to detour to the only inhabitable planet within range. Mutants following you. Mumm-Ra. Strange adventures in a hostile environment. And, strangest of all, you maturing to adulthood in a capsule desing to severely retard aging. Now, I must ask," Alluro continued, "how you can claim that this Third Earth exists when the evidence of Thundera's well-being is clearly displayed beyond my windows?"

"It's..."

"A twisted mind-game orchestrated by one of your arch-enemies. Me, in this case," he said with a dismissive wave of a hand. "Leanna, you not only built an elaborate fantasy in which to hide. You also blurred the line between what is real and what is not. I must say, I don't think your treatment here has helped any." Alluro tapped a few buttons on the side of a small hologram array at the right edge of his desk. An image from her ride with Tezri in the lift clearly showed him groping her breast. "I am truly, truly sorry for any mistreatment you received here and rest assured, a full investigation is already under way." Lion-O wanted to scream, thrash against her bonds, yet could not summon the energy to move. If this was a dream, or an hallucination, why did it feel so real?

"You're a Lunattak," she said weakly.

"I am from the Moons of Plun-Darr, yes," Allu Ro conceeded. "My people entered a treaty with yours for mutual defense against the constant attacks of Plun-Darr proper. To our mutual satisfaction, it would seem, since I have a practice on the Thunderian homeworld." She did not notice the point where she thought of him as Allu Ro rather than Alluro.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"I am doing nothing TO you," he replied, "I am doing this FOR you. At the behest of King Tygra, at that."

"King. Tygra."

"With no male heir, and you being here, there was no choice but for him to take the throne," Alluro said reasonably. "The king read my papers on this kind of disorder, and personally asked me to come to this facility."

"To experiment on me? Tygra wouldn't do that!"

"The Tygra you know is mainly a construct of your imagination based on the impressions of a ten-year-old girl. I was a tad reluctant at first, but I believe this procedure can help you."

"I don't need help." Don't I?

"I find it reassuring that you aren't suddenly counting the king among the conspirators."

"Tygra wouldn't shut me up in a nuthouse."

"No. Your father did." The bottom dropped out of Lion-O's stomach at that. "I trust you'll remain quiet on our trip?" Lion-O said nothing, barely noted Allu Ro placing the gag in a pocket on his coat. "Then, let us proceed. I promise you, Leanna, I will do all in my power to bring you back from the wilds of insanity."

"Vital signs stable!" Pumyra shouted as the biometric monitors began to read normal levels. "About damn time, too!" Lion-O lay on her bed, sheets soaked with sweat and the air sour with it. Her thrashings and screams had finally abated, yet each ThunderCat present cast each other worried looks. Pumyra stood above a console linked to a half-ring above Lion-O's head and constantly monitered her mental patterns. "Alpha-wave patterns and REM are normal for now. If we're gonna do something, we have to do it NOW!" Her convulsions and screams had awakened them and no attempt to awaken her had worked. Lion-O lay bare on the surface of her bed, shivering and mostly dormant. "What the hell is happening?"

"It's a psychic attack," Cheetara said. "There's nothing we can do from this end."

"Cheetara, no," Tygra said, horrified.

"Set up another scanner. I'm going in."

"You can't," Panthro said, grasping her arm in an iron-hard fist. "You'll be up against Alluro AND Mumm-Ra!"

"And you expect me to stand here and let them torture her?!" Cheetara shouted, her eyes wet with tears and blazing with anger. "No way. Pumyra, get me the same herbal blend you gave to Lion-O." She wrenched her arm from Panthro's grasp. "I am going in there, and I am going to END what those bastards are doing to her." Silence reigned, pierced only by Lion-O's fearful moans.

"Panthro, get another scanner," Pumyra said. "Tygra, you know where my herbal blends are. Cheetara, lay next to her and... do what you have to do to get ready." The Cheetah obliged, taking Lion-O's hand in hers and intertwining their fingers. Once alone, the Puma said, "I know you and Lion-O have become intimate. I know you love her. But, are you sure?"

"What other way is there?"

"Fine. I'll do what I can to align your alpha-wave patterns to hers. That SHOULD put you in whatever nightmare she's enduring. Just remember that..."

"Time in dreams is subjective. I know."

"Best of luck Cheetara. Bring Lion-O back to us."

"I will," she swore, the picture of solemn.


	8. What is Reality? Part Two

They emerged in the brightly-lit dome, Allu Ro beside the chair Lion-O was strapped to. The floorspace was nearly that of a Snarfball stadium, festooned with lit panels and active monitor stations. In the center of the bedlam of technology was a simple horizontal platform beneath a hemispherical construct clearly designed for her head.

"I don't wanna go in there..." Lion-O said. Fear beat a raging rhythm in her chest at the sight of the insidious machine before her.

"I know you don't," Allu Ro (or was it Alluro?) replied as her chair came to a halt and the restraints released. Several pairs of strong hands grasped her, lifting her out of her seat to place her atop the cushioned slab. Straps were locked in place before her struggles could even begin. A brace was locked about her head, circling over her ears and around her jaw, forcing her face upward into a chandelier of crystals and focusing lenses. Tiny buds slid into her ears, blocking out all ambient sound while a tiny needle prick stung her neck. "I'll be with you via secure comm-link," Allu Ro said, seemingly into her brain. "Just take deep breaths and relax." She found herself suddenly powerless to do anything else.

"Not AGAIN!" Pumyra shrieked as Lion-O's alpha-wave patterns spiked again. The nude young woman bucked and thrashed on the bed despite the fact that Panthro was doing his best to hold her down. Cheetara lay on the unoccupied half of Lion-O's bed, already sinking into her trance. Lion-O moaned low in her throat before screaming at the top of her lungs. The young woman bucked mightily even as Panthro put his considerable weight on her waist and grapsed her flailing arms in his hands.

"Is she in there yet?!" he barked, shooting a glance at the peaceful visgae of Cheetara.

"Not much longer!" Pumyra shouted after consulting the readouts on her datapad.

Layer by layer, she found the darkness replaced by textures. Sand beneath her bare feet, breeze redolent with fragrances of a forest she knew well. Calls of birds she hadn't heard in over a decade pierced the lightening darkness of her memories, bright sunlight piercing the veil of her closed eyes. The restraints had fallen away in this memory-palace yet she still held her arms about her torso.

I won't give in, she thought. I WILL NOT give in! The thought contained more bravado than will, she refused to admit.

"Open your eyes, Lea," Allu Ro gently insisted, and that alone felt like a near-irresistible command. "It's time you faced the truth."

"No..."

"Don't be difficult, now," he chided. "Open your eyes."

Bright sunlight reflected off jagged segments of quartz embedded in the grains at her feet. The sand was wet between her toes, seemingly more real to her than the booties and ankle restraints had been in the world outside the dream microcosm she found herself in. Segments seemed to phase in and out as the vision built itself, the lake at the base of a rounded cliff whose far surface roared with a waterfall becoming a pool of static for a brief moment before coalescing into a near-undeniable reality along with two figures.

She jerked as though slapped at the sight, a boy and a girl which her mind insisted were both representations of herself. The boy had the red mane and the promise of massive musculature she had known all her life contained within pale blue swim trunks. His face was both cocky and unsure, trying to hide fear beneath a veneer of bravery. The female's hair was of an identical shade and fell past her shoulders. The innocent swimsuit she wore hinted at the curves she also knew as her own, a promise of feminine beauty. A look of fey glee adorned her golden-eyed visage as she led the young boy by the hand to the pool's edge.

"This isn't real..." she gasped.

"Oh, this is quite real," Dr. Ro's voice said just behind her right ear. "I do hate to put you through this, but it's the only way you'll see the truth."

"I'm not sure about this," the boy said as they placed an icebox filled with a picnic lunch on the sandy ground between two towels.

"Don't be a scaredy-cat," the girl retorted. "It's just a little dip, it won't hurt!" She darted toward the edge of the pool, and Lea (who failed to notice that she stopped calling herself Lion-O) felt her chest tighten with dread. The young girl danced at the water's edge, laughing and full of life. "I saw CHEETARA swimming here," she called, winking.

"R... Really?" the boy said. (How can both of them be me? she thought just before a cool sensation spread from her shoulder.)

"Your pulse is a tad high," Allu Ro's voice said. "That should help."

"Lion-O's a scaredy-cat," she sang as she retreated to knee-depth in the water before kicking the surface into a foam.

"AM NOT!"

"ARE TOO!" the girl called back.

"I'll show you!" he said before dashing into the pool and plunging toward the center. Nausea rose up in a noxious tide from her stomach.

"Perfectly normal," Allu Ro's bodiless voice said. "You're experiencing this memory from two different viewpoints right now. The drug I administered should alleviate that." The wave of sickness passed and the tableaux before her changed in subtle ways. "There, that should take care of any bleed from your memories. You'll still feel what you see, but it shouldn't be quite so overwhelming."

It felt as if someone were taking a pen to her own brain, writing in sensations and knowledge that she felt both should and should not be there. Lea watched, utterly confused yet with a clear image of what was about to take place, as the young Lion-O swam farther out to the center of the lagoon. Dread bloomed, and she tried desperately to cry out for him to turn back. Her voice, though, was silent even to her own ears.

She watched as he turned about, paddling easily into the water and dread exploded into terror.

"Good job, bro," her younger self said. "Now come back. Don't wanna let this lunch Snarf made go to waste!" she called in a sing-song voice. Lion-O merely grinned.

"Just a second!" he called before diving beneath the surface. Lea's view shifted to herself setting out a lunch of sandwiches, then back to the calm surface of the water, still undistrubed. Lea sank to her knees, sick with looming terror as the seconds became minutes. In full horrid detail, she saw her younger self dash into the water, felt the mounting fear as she dove into the inky depths, lungs bursting for air as she searched for Lion-O without success.

"STOP IT!" she wailed, sinking to her knees as her younger self emerged, panting and wild-eyed and charging off down the path to the Lair.

"You, sir, are an iron-clad son of a bitch," Mumm-Ra said as he beheld the dream in his cauldron. Alluro hovered above the bubbling surface, both hands extended over the psych club and a vermillion beam of energy lancing from its tip into the waters. Even the ancient mage had winced at the subtlety and cruelty of the Lunattak's approach. It was a rare day when the everliving source of evil on Third Earth came even close to impressed. "Let us see where this leads, and then I'll think about when killing you would best serve my interests..."

She was laid gently on the padded floor of her cell, drained beyond any point she thought possible after her eighth treatment. Each time had progressed further before the agony forced Dr. Ro to end the session and bring her out of her memories. Lea could scarcely move once the orderlies set her limp body down, breath coming in great, desperate gasps. Her head fell to her left in time to see Dr. Ro's polished black shoes enter her vision. He hunkered down, turning her face up to his compassionate eyes.

"I know it's been a hard road," he said softly, "but you've done well."

"Ghaaa..."

"I am truly sorry for all that I've forced you to relive, but it's for your own good."

"... hurts..."

"I know it does, but pain can be a good thing. It lets us know when we are hurt, and can keep us from trying too hard to overcome. Now, what is your name?"

"Leanna, daughter of Claudis," she replied as if by rote.

"Who is Lion-O?"

"My brother, who I saw die," she said. "He dove too deep, and got tangled in creeper weeds."

"Who is at fault for his death?"

"It was an accident," she said dully, recalling the gathering of the ThunderCats at the lagoon. She saw in her memory her brother's body dredged from the depths. His remains were swollen with inhaled water, decomposition accellerated by the salts and a shade of blue that had haunted her all her days. The funeral, the first signs of her mind snapping, it all came so clearly to her.

"I'm glad you've finally come to accept the truth," Dr. Ro said with a gentle smile. He beckoned the orderlies over, and she offered no resistance as she was placed back into her usual restraints. "These are for your own good," he murmured as the gentle hands placed her back on the padded floor. "You've made great progress, Lea. Next, we'll start on coping with these newly un-earthed memories." A needle pierced her arm, and blackness rapidly encroached her vision.

"DAMNIT!" Pumyra swore. Lion-O's heartrate had skyrocketed once more, yet she didn't dare use a sedative to calm it. Such could leave her trapped in her dream and could kill her all the same. She glanced at the alpha wave patterns of the two women, aligning far too slowly. "BOOST THE GAIN ON THOSE RECEPTORS!" she barked in her best OR voice.

"They're already as high as they can go!" Tygra shouted back, staring down at his own readouts. "Their patterns are synching, just not fast enough!" The twins and Snarf had joined the gathered ThunderCats in the deep gloom of night, keeping silent and frightened witness to an assault that seemed unstoppable.

"Pulse is dropping again," she said with real - if short lived - relief. Pumyra grasped Lion-O and Cheetara's clasped hands in one of hers. "I don't know if either of you can hear me, but you gotta get in there, Cheetara. Lion-O can't take much more of this!"

"Alpha pattern synch is eight percent and rising," Tygra said from the opposite side of the bed the two women occupied.

"You have to do it," Pumyra said with desperation steadily creeping into her words. "You're her only hope, now."


	9. What is Reality? Part Three

They stygian darkness was actually a comfort as she charged forward, seeking that tiny spark which would lead her to Lion-O. It hid nothing from her as she quested ahead with her sixth sense as best as she was able. Alluro and Mumm-Ra had not counted on them mounting a resistance such as this or, if they had, they'd believed her own abilities would prove of no use.

I love it when they underestimate me, Cheetara thought as she plunged deeper into the black abyss.

She awoke, shivering and nude on the stone tiles which were caked with fresh blood. Leanna jolted upright and cast wild eyes about. Each stone tile was coated in blood inches thick, sticking to her as she rose. The circle of pale light did nothing to dispel the illusion of infinite space about her.

"Hello?" she called. No echo returned to her.

(Over here.) Leanna's feet left the blood-soaked floor for a moment and nearly spilled her on landing. She glanced up to see a full-length mirror hanging in space ahead of her. Her skin felt as if it wanted to leap from her bones more and more with each step she was helpless to take. Thick blood splashed beneath her feet, worming up between her toes and setting her stomach roiling.

Oh, Jaga, it's warm, she thought as her feet sent up crimson splashes. She saw in the mirror herself, then...

"Oh, please, no," she pleaded as her reflection warped into a form both familiar and alien. Fully grown, Lion-O emerged from the reflective surface and leered down at her.

"Look at you," he said. "My, sis, how you've grown."

"SHIT!" Pumyra shouted as Lion-O's alpha waves spiked yet again. "REPORT!"

"Synch is at ninety percent!" Tygra yelled back, his eyes glued to the monitors which measured the alpha patterns of both Lion-O and Cheetara.

"TOO SLOW! Damnit... Ten CCs of..." Lion-O bucked on her half of the bed, bruising showing on her throat as choking sounds struggled past her throat. Pumyra tried to tell herself they didn't resemble hand prints.

"NINETY-SEVEN PERCENT!" Tygra shouted.

Cheetara, she thought, if you have a miracle up your sleeve, STOP FUCKING AROUND AND USE IT!

Lea stared at him and beckpedaled in fear, her feet sending up splashes of blood. Lion-O did not slow his approach. She felt his eyes taking in the sight of her, nearly raping her with his eyes.

"I remember spying on you once, at the waterfall," he said, his words twisting her guts with horror. "I saw you and wondered why you were so different from me. Y'know. There." She shrank from his hands, covering herself as best she was able and igrnoring the blood splashing beneath her feet. Jumbled thoughts filled her mind, all fighting to gain release. "If I knew then what I know now," Lion-O said wistfully before a hand snaked out to tweak her right breast. Lea screamed in pain, shock, and fear. Her male avatar only laughed.

"Nowhere to run," he said. "Nowhere to hide, now that you know the truth. Now that you can't deny that you stand in my blood."

"...this isn't real..." she muttered, her voice weak. Dischordant symphonies of voices wailed in her mind, their messages drowning in one another as her sanity took blow after blow.

Who am I? she asked in her mind, her last fading refuge. She ran, as fast as her feet could carry her, splashing again and again in her brother's blood until he appeared before her again.

"Still trying to vanish into your fantasy," Lion-O said. "Your escape from me."

"Get away..."

"Not happening," Lion-O said as he stepped toward her. Each forward splash of his feet in the blood (oh, the BLOOD!) was answered by her own backward shuffle. "I've wanted to talk to you for the longest time, dear sister."

"You're not Lion-O," she said, her voice gaining strength despite the hammering storm of terror and self-doubt. "You're NOT!"

"I gotta give it to you," he said. "You're right. I'm not actually Lion-O."

"Then who are you?!"

"The part of you that you've spent most of your life running away from," he replied with a self-satisfied smirk. "Guilt. Self-hate. The knowledge that you were responsible for your brother's death."

"That was an accident..." Faint stirrings of images teased her mind, both real and unreal. The line between fact and fiction was rapidly blurring, the process Dr. Ro had begun gathering momentum in the manner of an avalanche.

"If some core part of you didn't believe that," the impostor began, "then the past years would have played out far differently. Let's take a look."

Infinite darkness was replaced with morning sun and stone tiles lay in place of a river of blood. She heard the muted sounds of grief from the ThunderCats who had gathered on the stone platform before a fountain which burbled with falling water from a dozen spigots hidden in the upturned hands of the maidens carved from weather-smoothed stone. Their faces, frozen in supplication, stared sightlessly out as the water fell from between their fingers in the manner of tears to land in the shallow pool at their feet. Resting before it was a coffin whose black wood gleamed with polish and the insignia of Thundera's Nobility. She tread lightly about, gawking openly at the mourning ThunderCats in attendance as Claudis stood before the box bearing the body of his son. It sat on a velvet-draped altar, a sad and lonely testament to a life cut tragically short.

They were all younger than she remembered. Panthro, then Tygra. She looked at her weeping father, Jaga soon kneeling next to him and draping a comforting arm about his shoulder. She saw Cheetara and froze for a moment, staring. Images briefly flooded her mind, of warmth and love and a night spent together, then vanished only to leave a lingering trace behind. Next to the Cheetah, though, Lea saw herself. Behind the well of tears was something disturbing.

"I don't remember this..."

"And why should you?" the voice of Not-Lion-O said from behind. Lea refused to look at him, focusing her eyes on the bejeweled combs in her younger self's mane of crimson hair. "This is where it all started. When you began to bury yourself."

"No..."

"Look at yourself," his voice said from just behind her right shoulder, close enough for his breath to tickle her ear. "That's right," he murmurred as her eyes slowly slid to those of her younger self. "You see it now?"

"No..." Weaker, now, she felt the flood begin to breach the dam of her remaining vestiges of control.

"Yes. That glimmer in your eyes." Hands clamped down on her shoulders, tight as vices. "That's where it all began."

"I don't believe you..."

"Oh, you do. Remember? You'd thought it more than once. 'Why should he rise to the throne? Why not me?'"

"No..."

"Oh, of COURSE you never entertained those thoughts for long, but they came back to bite you in the ass, now didn't they?" The impostor Lion-O slid into her view, his hands still maddeningly on her shoulders. "Especially now. With him dead, you asked yourself if you might be responsible. Le GASP!" he said with an exaggerated air of drama, "you didn't know!" His grip on her shoulders instantly tightened, vice-like, drawing a shriek of pain from her lips. He lifted her without apparent effort and the pressure on her shoulders vanished just before she was flung through the air. Her back met the ground, sliding across the grass from the remaining momentum. She lay there, her head threatening to burst from the pressure of conflicting memories and raw emotion. She clenched her teeth nearly to the point of cracking them, some inner spark refusing to let the cry for mercy escape her lips.

"There is only one escape from me," the impostor Lion-O said in a voice like silk. "Only one escape from all the pain. All the misery. You'll accept it, in time."

"Indeed she will," snarled a voice that shone like the sun on her heart. Lion-O's face contorted into a mein of stark surprise. Cheetara turned about, her look of anguish replaced with one of unbridled fury. The softness of youth was replaced with a woman in full bloom and towering rage. With a primal scream, a torrent of power burst from her which shattered the scene of her brother's funeral like fragile porcelian. The image of Lion-O burst into fragments as well.

"Dr. Ro?" she said weakly. Her mind was still fogged and sluggish, her thoughts slow to form. "Allu Ro... Alluro...?"

Cheetara glared daggers at Alluro, letting the power simmer beneath the iron control of her will. She knew she was at a disadvantage, a horrible one at that as she felt the power of Mumm-Ra's magic boosting Alluro's own psychic abilities to levels she had only felt from master psionics on Thundera, yet she stood firm. She had once chance to counter Alluro's edge. She could not show any weakness. Alluro's own over-confidence was key to tipping the odds in her favor.

"Oh, well done, well DONE!" he cheered, clapping. "To think you snuck in here without my knowing. Oh, and that ENTRANCE! You, my dear, have a real flair for the dramatic."

"I'm going to tell you once. Get away from her."

"And I shall answer you once. No." Alluro locked his eyes on hers and the power of Mumm-Ra washed over her in a foul tide of thought. She tightened her defenses, forming a shell about her mental self. "As I thought," he said. "You came here alone. So very brave. So very stupid." He stepped slowly forward in the white void as though a solid floor was beneath their feet.

"Lion-O, you have to listen to me!"

"She can't really hear you. I've already established my dominance in her mindscape which puts her and - by proxy - you, at my mercy." Onyx tendrils snaked out of the nothingness, wrapping about Lion-O's neck, wrists, ankles, and waist before jerking her limp form upright.

"LET HER GO!"

"Not happening," Alluro replied, sing-song. "Your dear Lion-O is merely a puppet, now. I am in complete command here." The tendrils drew taut, jerking Lion-O upward into the white space of thought and out of sight. "I must thank you for coming," Alluo went on. "It will make breaking her mind SO much easier." Alluro vanished. Cheetara spun about, questing for Lion-O and for the direction of the Lunattak's first assault with her mind. The latter came swiftly enough.

Lion-O's tethered form dropped in a limp heap before her. And another. And another, until she was surrounded by them. Cheetara summoned the mental image of her staff from memory just before the cords wound about each tightened and snatched each Lion-O upright. Cheetara turned a slow circle, searching each with her mind. As one, each Lion-O was forced to reach behind their backs to pull out long, wickedly curved blades.

This, she thought, is going to be much harder than I thought...


	10. What is Reality? Part Four

Cords of black energy stretched the joints in her arms, shoulders, legs, knees, and ankles to near breaking as they held her far above the battle. Lion-O/Lea (still unsure of what name was truly hers) looked down in horror that the tendrils about her throat choked off. Tears slid down her cheeks at the sight of the woman (Cheetara, she loves you...) fighting for her life as similarly bound copies of herself attacked her with knives and clumsy thrusts. Cheetara parried each blow, her body twisting and turning frantically to move her between assaults.

"She is brave," Alluro whispered into her ear, "but I wonder how long she can keep this up?"

"Let me go, you bastard!"

"No. I like your mind right where it is. Beneath my heel." Lion-O's gaze was then locked forcibly on Cheetara's increasingly desperate struggles.

Dodge. Evade. Strike. Backflip. Cheetara began to gasp from the effort of dodging the Lion-O clones which kept trying to turn her into a shish-ke-bab. Muscles she did not possess in this plane burned from the effort of keeping ahead of each thrust of knife. Their efforts were clumsy, yet numerous, and the sheer amount of assaults to her person made up for the lack of skill.

I can't keep this up, she thought as she desperately felt for Lion-O's mind. I'm playing right into Alluro's hands. A stinging pain streaked her side where a knife found slight purchase, yet she resisted the urge to slap a palm to it. Blood trickled down her right side from the shallow cut as she parried blows from two puppets to dodge away from a third near her back.

Puppets, she thought, that's all these are! A plan formed, quick and desperate, but it was her only chance.

"Oh, look at her go!" Alluro cried in delight, far above the battle. "Not gonna lie, this is giving me SUCH wood right now!" He tightened the coils about the female Lion-O's throat just enough to render speech impossible. "Look at her. Fighting so desperately for you. Not killing any of them for fear of killing you, even though I could summon ten for each she takes down! Ah, love." Alluro cast a cruel look at the bound Lion-O, revelling in her pain. "It truly does make fools of us all." Far below, Cheetara dashed in a circle that left several of the Lion-O images flat. She stood amidst the recovering bodies, panting in exhaustion as one rose up behind her. Lion-O fought for all she was worth, her scream a strangled croak as the copy of herself rose, readied the dagger, and struck.

Her heart froze in mid-beat as the blade exited Cheetara's chest just below her sternum. Cheetara siezed as if in the grip of an electric shock just before the crimson-stained blade retracted through her chest.

"And that, as they say, is that," Alluro's smug voice sang in her ear. Horror and fury warred for control as Cheetara fell to the ground. Lion-O could not tear her eyes away from the ocean of blood pooling beneath the chest of the woman she loved. Memories rushed back, repelling the lies she had begun to believe. Cheetara's body faded into ether, lost in the nether spaces of thought.

"DAMN YOU!" she cried at the top of her lungs, fury waging war with despair.

"Oh, come now, you don't even know who she was," Alluro said with a smug smirk on his face. "You don't know ANYTHING for sure anymore! But, I will fix that. Oh, yes."

She felt his invasive presence once more, hammering at the flimsy walls she had erected.

"Please, such a feeble defense," Alluro purred. "Just give in, already! You KNOW you can't... win?" The tide against her thought faded as the Lunattak cast his eyes about. "What in the..."

"It was a good try," Cheetara's voice said from the nothingness. "Miserable failure, but a nice try."

"What is this shit...?"

"Did you think you were the ONLY one who knew how to wage a war of the mind?" her voice demanded, its thundering boom filled with equal parts mocking and scorn. Lion-O looked up and her jaw dropped open in astonishment. Alluro followed her gaze as Cheetara, fifty feet tall and glowing a brilliant gold, strode into view.

"Oh, fuck me..." Alluro choked as her leg raised.

"On the battlefield of the mind," she began, "MINE IS SUPERIOR!" Lion-O felt as if she were growing ever more detached as the giant woman's foot (her name is... her name... is...) struck the floor with tremendous force directly atop Alluro (Allu Ro?). The shockwave from the impact hammered into her with savage force, blowing her back across the nothingness to land sliding on her bare back. The fog cleared slightly, the burning in her chest faint despite the fading whirl of her thoughts. Lion-O was no longer acutely aware of herself submerging, drowning in the blank white which seeped into her slowly.

Cheetara knew her boast was hollow, panting as she willed herself to what she perceived was her normal height and dashing to Lion-O. The other woman lay on her back, taking deep gulps of air and staring out with a growing look of vacancy in her eyes.

"Lion-O!" she snapped, grasping the other woman by the shoulders and yanking her roughly upward. "LION-O!" Sitting there in her arms, limp and without will, Lion-O merely stared ahead. Ice gripped Cheetara's heart as she felt Lion-O's mind slowly fade. "No, no, DAMNIT LISTEN TO ME!" she shrieked, grasping Lion-O's jaw and forcing their eyes to meet. "This is YOUR mind!" she shouted, increasingly desperate. "Alluro only has what control you give him!"

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that." Cheetara looked over her shoulder as the ruined spot swirled and reformed into Alluro, his smug expression still firmly in place. "I am impressed, by the way. Attack of the Fifty-Foot Cheetara. Priceless!" He stepped forward languidly, clearly in no hurry. "Don't bother trying to reach her. The doubts I placed in her mind are like computer viruses," Alluro explained. "Always expanding. Hell, I give her about five minutes before she becomes an empty vessel. Ripe for re-molding." Cheetara was unable to dodge the black tendril which rapidly snaked up her arms and legs, hoisting her into the air. Their grip was harder than steel, colder than ice. "It's only a matter of time," he began, "before I leave her an empty vessel. Killing you will only speed that along." Cheetara could offer no resistance as the onyx tendrils snaked about her limbs and hoisted her upright.

"He only has what power you give him," she said as her limbs were painfully constricted, her ribs crushed to near breaking. "REMEMBER THAT!" She reached out with her heart on saying those words.

"Keep talking," Alluro said. "Talk all you want. Her mind is MINE! What little resistance is there is... is..." Alluro let his focus fall away from Cheetara. "Oh, shit..."

The words struck deep within her, reverberating in crystal clear waves through her mind, her soul, casting light were shadows had formed. Memories began to return, her will rallying forth and gaining strength. She felt something, bright and hot, deep in herself stir to life and fill her with vigor and strength. Alluro's choking grip on her mind lessened by degrees, his iron bondage losing strength. She could feel his mounting desperation as he doubled his efforts, and found another source of strength, of love and life, and a name burned in her mind like the sun. Cheetara.

Lion-O opened her eyes and cast a disdainful look at the dark tendrils that bound her. With an effort of will, she cast them aside, shattering them into jagged shards that faded to smoke. She glanced up, and the tendrils trying to crush Cheetara fell to the same fate. The Cheetah landed easily, looking back at her with gratitude and love.

"I knew you'd do it," she said, ver voice choked with relief. "I love you."

"Oh, for the love of SHIT!" Alluro cried. "Do you really think you can fight me off? Neither of you has the power to match me!"

"Not alone," Lion-O said.

"But together, blah, blah, blah." He inreased his efforts further, straining her newly-regained control. "You even think you have home-field advantage. Guess, what? I damn near BROKE you! You think I can't do it again?!"

"You will NOT!"

"Yeah. Sure. Keep telling yourself that," Alluro snarled. She felt Cheetara step behind her, the other woman's arms sliding about her shoulders, her chin in Lion-O's cascade of hair and, most of all, Cheetara's heart joining hers in the struggle against Alluro. She thrust her hands outward as Cheetara's power, her love, her light, flowed inside.

Yet, it wasn't enough. The cold, malevolent power backing Alluro increased its pressure, a wall of darkness pressing against a now-visible shimmering golden barrier. Through their gestalt, he felt Cheetara weakening alongside her, their reserves of strength failing fast.

(Don't give up,) Cheetara thought.

(I won't. Never.) Lion-O focused on the image, seeing it as clearly as if it were in her hand, the Sword of Omens appearing in her right a moment later.

"Oh, that's just too cute," Alluro mocked. "A memory of your sword." Lion-O ignored him, feeling Cheetara's memories streaking through herself, understanding on a level neither could achieve alone. And smiled.

Residue from the fire extinguisher coated the ruined monitor arch above their heads, the coating melted and still sparking in places. Pumyra shoved it away with a snarl, now reduced to a handscanner that lacked the capacity to analyze brain waves and neural firing patterns. Lion-O and Cheetara still lay side-by-side, unmoving yet coated in a slick sheen of sweat. She glanced down at the scanner.

"Heart rates are through the roof!" she cried. "Respiration is erratic! Pulse... I don't even want to say it!" Lion-O's right arm rose from her side, palm up and fingers outstretched as a surge of energy, invisible and silent yet tangible all the same, pushed them back from her bed. A small portion the bedchamber's far wall exploded outward, a streak of silver resolving into the Sword of Omens settling neatly into her palm. Lion-O's fingers curled about the blade, which grew to battle length with a mighty growl from the Eye which resonated with each ThunderCat in the room.

"She's calling us," Tygra said.

"How do we get in?" Panthro asked. "Stand in a circle and hold hands?"

"At this point, why not?" WilyKit replied. They stood around Lion-O's bed, each ThunderCat clasping hands with the other and a wave of power washed through them from the Eye, unlike any they had ever felt before.

The Sword grew hot in her hand, and she felt them from the outside reaching in, filling her with power and fire. The failing barrier flared a brilliant white before exploding outward, banishing the darkness and leaving Alluro exposed.

"Seems Mumm-Ra ducked out on you," she snarled as Cheetara stepped beside her. The power of her friends, of her love, roared in her veins and flames licked at the Sword's blade. Cheetara looked down at her own hand in surprise to find an identical Sword of Omens in her grip. "You hurt me," Lion-O said in a low voice. "You twisted my thoughts. You bent me to your will and tried to break me." With each word, she and Cheetara took another step forward. "But, you didn't come NEAR the core of me. Of who I am and what I believe."

"You... you can't DO THIS!" Alluro screamed.

"Know what? You never would have, either," Lion-O went on. "Sure, you might have mind-screwed me, but you would NEVER have gotten to that part of me. Not with all the ones I love with me. They showed me that light, and I will never lose sight of it again." With that, she charged forward, the blazing fires of the Sword glowing white-hot, Cheetara keeping pace and her own blade following suit. Their steps quickened to a run, closing in on Alluro with Swords raised high, and their voices cried out in unison. "Thunder! Thunder! THUNDER!"

The encircled ThunderCats heard the cry and echoed it with the two trapped in the spaces of the mind. "THUNDERCATS!"

"HO!" Lion-O and Cheetara screamed as one, their blades passing through Alluro in a manner that would make a hot knife through butter envious. The ended their charge on one knee, their blades dipped at opposite angles as Alluro flew apart with a scream of torment. His presence vanished moments later.

Alluro, suspended above the cauldron, screamed in agony just before the entire stone base exploded in a shower of stone fragments that hammered Mumm-Ra off his feet. His back slammed into the closed lid of his sarcophagus, nearly blacking him out. He opened his ember-like eyes a moment later, surverying the damage.

The cauldron was destroyed, utterly useless. The puddle ran between lines of mortar in the stone floor of the Tomb Chamber, tinged with red. He looked about, finding Alluro in a rather sorry, to mean dead, state. A long fragment of the orb from his Psych Club lay embedded in his right eye, dripping blood that had splashed against it. Even if that had not killed the Lunattak, the unnatural angle of his neck would also have done the job. Alluro had landed agains the upper facade of his sarcophagus chamber, if the massive bloodstain were any indicator.

"Ma-Mutt," he said, weak from the effort of the night's magic. The hound appeared at once. "Deal with that," Mumm-Ra said before shuffling toward his sanctuary. "And when you are done, do your business in the sands outside." Mumm-Ra trudged toward the sarcophagus, weary as the sound of Ma-Mutt rapidly masticating the remains of Alluro filled the air. It had been a good plan, and once again the Eye of Thundera had ruined it. "She will come to me, now," he said, knowing that this would be the result. "I will let her rest. Recover. Best to break an enemy when they are at the peak of their strength. As I must be, as well." The stone lid closed, blocking out the sounds of Ma-Mutt enjoying fresh meat.


End file.
